New Zealand: Maori lawmakers protest in parliament with Haka war dance

Indigenous Maori lawmakers have staged a traditional Haka war dance during a parliamentary session, protesting a controversial bill proposed by a right-wing political party.

The protest to the revision of an official treaty recognizing the rights of the indigenous people broke out on the floor of parliament in Wellington on Thursday.

A vote on the controversial bill that seeks to redefine the country's founding agreement between the indigenous Maori people and the original British colonizers representing the Crown was momentarily suspended after the move.

Maori MP Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke, 22, led the members of opposition parties performing the Haka as people in the public gallery joined in the ceremonial war dance. The Maori MP ripped up a copy of the proposed bill throwing its shredded piece on the parliament floor.

Across New Zealand, there has been significant public backlash to the bill, with thousands of people joining a nine-day Hikoi (protest march) this week. Starting at the tip of the North Island, participants are expected to arrive at parliament on Tuesday.

Under the 1840 Treaty of Waitangi, Maori tribes were promised extensive rights to retain their lands and protect their interests in return for ceding governance to the Crown.

The proposed bill aimed to cut the special rights granted to the indigenous Maori people of New Zealand, threatening to radically reduce the influence of the original Maori native owners who lived on the land before the arrival of the colonizers.

The bill had been put in motion by the rightwing ACT New Zealand, a minor partner in New Zealand’s coalition government, led by David Seymour. The rightwing Act party has been called a racist group likened by the protesting native Maori lawmakers to the “Ku Klux Klan".

Ku Klux Klan, commonly shortened to the KKK or the Klan, is the name of an American white supremacist, far-right terrorist organization and hate group.

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The MPs' protest prompted the speaker, Gerry Brownlee, to suspend parliament for nearly half an hour and suspend Maipi-Clarke for 24 hours.

Willie Jackson, the Labor MP and Maori leader, was also ejected from the House after he denounced Seymour as the architect of ACT’s contentious anti-Maori bill, and a “liar”.

Seymour, who will become deputy prime minister, next year as part of a governing coalition agreement claims that under the Treaty of Waitangi, the native Maori people enjoy privileges that were not granted to other New Zealanders.

The controversial bill tabled by his party seeks to remove the special status granted to the Maori people by law, that has been developed in over 50 years by courts, tribunals and successive governments to help guide the relationship between Maori and ruling authorities. 

The special status granted to the Maori people by law has given them the necessary funds needed to revitalize the Maori language, including making it an official language.

It was used to establish a Maori health authority to reverse poor health outcomes for Maori, which the coalition government dismantled this year.

The present right-wing government coalition led by the New Zealand National Party holds 68 of the 120 seats in parliament.

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