Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: Tens of thousands of the Maori community members, native people of what later became known as New Zealand, on Tuesday marched to parliament in the capital Wellington to protest against a controversial bill striking at the core of the country’s founding principles and diluting the rights of Māori people.
Hīkoi leader Eru Kapa-Kingi told the crowd “Māori nation has been born” today and that “Te Tiriti is forever.
Protesters gathered outside parliament, known as the Beehive, as lawmakers discussed the controversial bill inside. Last week, parliament was briefly suspended after Māori lawmakers staged a haka to disrupt voting on the bill.
The Hīkoi mō te Tiriti march began last week in New Zealand’s far north and crossed the length of the North Island in one of the country’s biggest protests in history.
The traditionally peaceful Māori walk, or hīkoi, culminated outside parliament on Tuesday, where protesters demanded the lawmakers reject the controversial Treaty Principles Bill that seeks to reinterpret the 184-year-old treaty between British colonizers and hundreds of local Māori tribes.
Although the new legislative attempt is unlikely to be passed, as most parties have committed to voting it down, its very introduction has sparked a political upheaval and reignited a debate on Indigenous people’s rights in the country under the most right-wing government led by Prime Minister Christopher Luxon.
After their weeklong protest marches, massive crowds marched through the New Zealand capital as part of the hīkoi, with people waving flags and signs, alongside members of the Māori community in their traditional clothing.
Police said about 42,000 people, a significant number in a country of only about 5 million people, marched toward parliament to oppose the legislation.
New Zealand’s Treaty of Waitangi was signed by the colonial British regime and 500 Māori chiefs in 1840 that enshrines principles of co-governance between Indigenous and non-Indigenous New Zealanders.
The treaty is considered one of the country’s founding documents and the interpretation of its clauses still guides legislation and policy today.
Two versions of the text – in Māori, or Te Tiriti, and English – were signed but each contains a differing language that has long sparked debate over how the treaty is defined and interpreted.
Unlike the United States, New Zealand doesn’t have a written constitution. Instead, the treaty’s principles have been developed over the past 40 years by successive governments and courts.
The agreement seeks to protect Māori interests, their role in decision-making, and their relationship with the British Crown. Courts have used the principles to redress Māori disenfranchisement and enact policies that seek to remedy social and economic disparities Māori face.
The fresh controversial Treaty Principles Bill was introduced by David Seymour, leader of the right-wing ACT New Zealand Party, which is a junior coalition partner with the ruling National and New Zealand First parties.
Seymour said he did not want to change the text of the original treaty but argued its principles should be defined in law and should be applicable to all New Zealanders, not just Māori.
Supporters of the bill say the ad hoc way in which the treaty has been interpreted over the years has given Māori special treatment.
As parliamentarians gathered for a preliminary vote on the bill on Thursday last week, Te Pati Maori MPs stood and began a haka.
The bill is being widely opposed by politicians from both sides of the aisle and thousands of Indigenous and non-Indigenous New Zealanders, with critics saying it could undermine the rights of the Māori.
Seymour was met with chants of “kill the bill, kill the bill” when he briefly walked out of parliament to meet the crowds on Tuesday, the media reported.