Members of the Māori community and their supporters marched through the streets of Wellington on Tuesday in a protest rally to criticize the government for its policies affecting the Indigenous Māori population.
Members of the Māori community and their supporters participated in a protest outside the parliament in Wellington on Tuesday. The booming Indigenous Māori 'haka' chants echoed across New Zealand's capital as tens of thousands rallied against a conservative push to redefine the nation's founding treaty. More than 35,000 demonstrators filled the harbourside city of Wellington, according to police, shutting down busy streets as their spirited procession made its way towards parliament. Bare-chested men draped in traditional feather cloaks were joined by horse riders waving the red, white, and black Māori flag. Children marched alongside adults bearing distinctive full-face Māori 'moko' tattoos and clutching ceremonial wooden weapons.
Protests have been growing throughout New Zealand after a minor party in the conservative coalition government drafted a bill to redefine the 1840 Treaty of Waitangi. Although the bill has almost no chance of passing, its introduction has sparked one of New Zealand's largest protests in decades. After it was presented for debate in parliament last week, 22-year-old Māori Party MP Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke stood up in the chamber, tore the bill in half, and performed a haka. She joined the crowds of protesters gathered on the lawns on Tuesday outside New Zealand's beehive-shaped parliament building.
'I may have been suspended for 24 hours and not allowed into the gates of the debating chambers, but the next day I showed up outside the steps with a hundred thousand of my people, marching with our heads held high and our flags waving with pride,' she told them. 'We are the king makers, we are the sovereign people of this land, and the world is watching us here.' Many critics of the bill, including some of New Zealand's most respected lawyers, see it as an attempt to strip long-agreed rights from the country's 900,000-strong Māori population.
'It's not the best way to have a conversation. We will not accept unilateral change to a treaty that involves two parties,' said Ngira Simmonds, a key advisor to New Zealand's Māori queen. 'There is a better way,' he told AFP from Wellington. Many demonstrators arrived in Wellington after a nine-day 'hikoi' — or protest march — that began hundreds of kilometers away at New Zealand's northern tip.
At the center of the outcry is government minister David Seymour, the outspoken leader of the libertarian ACT Party — a minor partner in the governing coalition. Seymour has long opposed affirmative action policies designed to help Māori, who remain far more likely to die early, live in poverty, or end up in prison. His bill would seek to reverse these so-called 'special rights.' Incumbent Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has expressed his opposition to Seymour's bill, meaning it is almost certain to fail in a parliamentary vote. But former conservative prime minister Jenny Shipley said just proposing it threatened to 'divide New Zealand in a way that I haven't experienced in my adult life.'
Seen as the country's founding document, the Treaty of Waitangi was signed in 1840 to bring peace between 540 Māori chiefs and colonizing British forces. Its principles today underpin efforts to foster partnership between Indigenous and non-Indigenous New Zealanders and protect the interests of the Māori community. The anniversary of the treaty's signing remains a national holiday.
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