indigenous “Haka” Chants echoed across New Zealand’s capital, Wellington, as thousands of people rallied against the bill, which critics say would change the core of the country’s founding treaty and undermine the rights of the Māori people. Hikoi Mo Te Tiriti The march began ten days earlier in the country’s far north, where bare-chested men wearing traditional feathered cloaks accompanied by horsemen waving red, white and black Maori flags descended on the capital in one of the country’s largest protests in recent decades. Marched towards.
The Hikoi march ended on Tuesday outside New Zealand’s Parliament, where an estimated 35,000 people demonstrated and called on MPs to reject the Treaty Principles Bill introduced by the libertarian ACT New Zealand party earlier this month. The bill reportedly seeks to redefine the Treaty of Waitangi – an 1840 agreement between the British and several, but not all, Maori tribes that covers issues including land and cultural rights.
Although the legislation has almost no chance of passage as most parties in the island nation have committed to voting to reject it, its mere introduction has caused political turmoil in the country and debate over indigenous rights. It has started again.
Maori and their history in New Zealand
The Maoris are believed to be the original inhabitants of the two large islands now known as New Zealand. They reportedly arrived on a canoe voyage from eastern Polynesia in the 1300s and settled on the then-uninhabited islands. Over the centuries, they developed their own distinct culture and language. To this day, they are spread throughout New Zealand as part of various tribes.
The Maoris called the two islands where they lived Aotearoa. The British colonists, who took control of the islands under treaty in 1840, changed the name to New Zealand. New Zealand gained independence from the British in 1947.
Treaty of Waitangi
As the British Crown took control of New Zealand, it signed the Treaty of Waitangi (also known as Te Tiriti o Waitangi or bus Te Tiriti)– Founding documents with approximately 500 Māori chiefs, or rangatira.
According to a report by Al Jazeera, the document was originally introduced as a measure to resolve differences between the Māori and the British. However, there are some glaring differences between the English and te reo versions of the treaty, which allegedly led to Māori continuing to suffer injustice in New Zealand even after independence.
According to the Reo Māori version of the treaty, Māori chiefs have “rangatiratanga” or “self-determination”, giving the Māori people the right to govern themselves. However, as Al Jazeera reports, the English translation states that the Māori chiefs “transfer without hesitation all rights and powers of sovereignty to Her Majesty, the Queen of England”.
However, the English version gives the Maoris “full exclusive and uninterrupted possession of their lands and estates forest fisheries”. Despite this, by the time New Zealand gained independence, 90 percent of Māori land was reportedly taken over by the British Crown.
In 1975, the government formed the Waitangi Tribunal, a permanent body to decide Treaty cases. The tribunal reportedly sought to address treaty violations and resolve differences between the two texts of the treaty.
Treaty Principles Bill
Currently, there are 978,246 Māori in New Zealand, according to official figures, making up about 19 percent of the country’s population of 5.3 million. Te Pati Māori, or the Māori Party, represents them in Parliament and holds six of the 123 seats there.
MP David Seymour, himself a Māori, introduced the Treaty Principles Bill in Parliament. He is a member of the ACT Party, a minor partner in New Zealand’s coalition government. Mr Seymour has long been against affirmative action policies designed to help Māori.
According to Mr Seymour’s party, the Treaty of Waitangi has been misinterpreted for decades, creating a dual system for New Zealanders where Māori are given special treatment. The Treaty Principles Bill seeks to end “division on the basis of caste” by giving specific definition to the Treaty Principles. These principles would then apply to all New Zealanders, Māori or not.
Outgoing Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has expressed his opposition to Seymour’s bill, meaning it will almost certainly fail when it comes to a parliamentary vote. But former Conservative Prime Minister Jenny Shipley said that taking it forward “threatened to divide New Zealand in a way I have not seen in my adult life”.
Why is the bill controversial?
After the bill was tabled for debate in Parliament last week, 22-year-old Māori Party MP Hana-Raviti Maipi-Clark tore it in half and made a haka. Visuals of their demonstration were shared widely on social media, marking one of the largest Māori demonstrations in New Zealand’s recent history.
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 Māori population.
“This is not the best way to negotiate. We will not accept unilateral changes to a treaty that involves two parties,” Ngira Simmonds, a key adviser to New Zealand’s Maori Queen, told AFP news agency.
“There is a better way,” he said.
