35,000 arrive at New Zealand parliament to protest against controversial Māori treaty bill – as it happened | New Zealand
Police say 35,000 people are outside parliament
Police estimate there are 35,000 protestors gathered outside parliament.
Te Pāti Māori co-leader Rawiri Waititi, addressed the crowd:
Kia ora, my sovereign peoples. Aotearoa is our kingdom. We must protect it.
We’ve got a message for this Government. Kill the bill. Kill the bill.
We are inspiring indigenous peoples around the world to rise up.
The whole world is watching.
Key events
This live coverage of the hīkoi protesting a controversial bill that could drastically alter the way the country’s founding treaty between Māori and the crown is interpreted is ending now, thanks for following along.
You can read the full story from the Guardian’s New Zealand correspondent, Eva Corlett, here.
Here is a gallery of the best pictures from the day:
Eva Corlett
As the hīkoi began to slowly disperse, people spoke to the Guardian about the importance of the day.
“I couldn’t stay away,” Rahiri said, who is of Māori, Croatian and Irish descent.
“Seymour wants to rewrite our history and kick us off our own table, and all we have really asked for is a seat back at our own table.”
Rahiri likened the current struggle to past Māori rights movements, including the historic hīkoi to parliament in 2004, over the Foreshore and Seabed Act. “I was here as a three year old in 2004 telling the [government] to bugger off and here I am again 20 years later.”
Rahiri said the day was “magical” and one day, he would be telling his grandchildren he was here.
Some images from the day:
Eva Corlett
The architect of the bill, Act party leader David Seymour, was confronted with chants of “kill the bill” as walked out of parliament and made a brief appearance before the march, before waving and walking back inside.
Ahead of the march, organisers had said up to 50,0000 were expected to participate in the last stage of the hīkoi, which would dwarf the historic 2004 Foreshore and Seabed march. Wellington city council warned commuters to plan for hours-long travel delays as the march winds its way through the city’s main streets towards parliament.
The Māori Queen, Nga wai hono i te po, was among those protesting.
“The Māori Queen is willing to help lead a conversation about nationhood and national unity but she will not accept a unilateral process that undermines [the treaty],” her spokesperson, Ngira Simmons, said in a statement on Monday.
The hīkoi gathered in opposition to the Treaty Principles Bill, which if passed into law, would radically alter the way the Treaty of Waitangi is interpreted. The treaty is an agreement signed in 1840 between more than 500 Māori chiefs and the crown and is instrumental in upholding Māori rights.
The bill does not have widespread support and is unlikely to become law. However, the bill’s introduction has prompted widespread anger among the public, academics, lawyers and Māori rights groups who believe it is creating division, undermining the treaty, and damaging the relationship between Māori and ruling authorities.
Eva Corlett
Here is our full story on the hīkoi:
A protest march estimated to be one of the largest in New Zealand history arrived at parliament on Tuesday, to oppose a controversial bill that could drastically alter the way the country’s founding treaty between Māori and the crown is interpreted.
After midday local time, police said parliament grounds had reached capacity as more than 35,000 people were estimated to be taking part in the march. As the first group of marchers reached parliament, the crowd stretched around 2km through the city.
Earlier, tens of thousands had converged at the waterfront’s Waitangi Park, ahead of the walk to parliament, colouring the skyline with the red, white and black of the tino rangatiratanga flag – the national Māori flag that has become a prominent symbol of Māori sovereignty. Protesters carried placards calling on the government to honour the treaty and “kill the bill”.
The hīkoi mō te Tīriti (march for the treaty) began nine days ago at the northern-most tip of the country at Cape Reinga, and has been winding its way down the North Island towards Wellington.
Hayley Komene was part of the march in Wellington. “There is a real strength and pride,” she said. “There are people from lots of different backgrounds here for the same reason – it’s beautiful.”
Komene condemned the government’s Māori policies, calling them “absolutely ridiculous”.
“Te tiriti is a constitutional document of our country.”
Eva Corlett
A Māori-Samoan protester who is known by his creative name, Creative Taro, said he had attended the hīkoi to continue the work of his ancestors.
He said no words could describe the feeling of the day, and that it was “kotahitanga [unity] at its finest”. More moving still, were the discussions between families and friends happening around him.
“Hearing what people were sharing with their kids, and the reason why we are here and why it’s important – those little conversations were the ones that were cool to hear.”
Creative Taro said he welcomes anyone who has made New Zealand their home but Māori “want what’s right” for their future.
Creative Taro, who has a large online following for his upcycled sustainable clothes, was decked out in a patchwork vest and hat. He made the outfit in protest of the government’s ban on gang-patches, coming into force later this week. While not gang-affiliated himself, he said many of his brothers were, which was a product of colonisation.
“Gangs aren’t the problem, the reason why gangs exist is the problem.”
Here is the video of that haka:
Here is a photograph from the hīkoi of Hana-Rāwhiti Maipi-Clarke, the MP who led a haka in parliament last week and ripped up a copy of the Treaty Principles Bill:
The Guardian’s Mark Saunokonoko, a Kiwi currently far from home in our Australian newsroom, writes:
The last time New Zealand saw a protest of this magnitude was in 2010, when an estimated 40,000 marched in Auckland against government plans to allow mining in national parks.
National, the government of the day, had announced it was consulting on opening 7058 hectares of protected conservation land and marine reserves for mining.
The prospect of mining pristine parts of New Zealand caused upset across the country. On 1 May, tens of thousands of people marched up Queen Street, the main road in Auckland’s CBD.
Several months later, the energy and resources minister, Gerry Brownlee, said the government was backing down.
Violent protests in 1981 against the Springbok rugby tour of NZ, during apartheid era South Africa, are also etched into the minds of many New Zealanders.
Those protests, which caused the cancellation of some matches, also shone a light on racism issues inside NZ.
What does the Treaty Principles Bill propose?
Eva Corlett
The bill is one of Act’s flagship policies, and seeks to get rid of the well-established principles in favour of its own, redefined principles.
The party believes the current principles have distorted the original intent of the treaty and created a twin system for New Zealanders, resulting in Māori having different political and legal rights and privileges compared with non-Māori. The party has regularly called for an end to “division by race”.
Act’s leader, David Seymour, has cited co-governance (shared decision-making power between Māori and the Crown) and the establishment of quotas, designed to remedy under-representation of Māori in public institutions, as “contrary to the principle of equal rights”.
Seymour says the bill “provides an opportunity for parliament, rather than the courts, to define the principles of the treaty, including establishing that every person is equal before the law.”
A petition against the Treaty Principles Bill has received 220,000 signatures, New Zealand’s The Press reports.
What is the Treaty of Waitangi?
Eva Corlett
The Treaty of Waitangi was signed in 1840 by the British Crown and more than 500 Māori chiefs to establish a nation state. The treaty covers issues including land and cultural rights and Māori relations with ruling authorities. While not a legal document, some treaty principles have been developed and included in legislation.
There is an English and a Māori version of the treaty. These documents contain fundamental differences that have long plagued the application of the treaty and how it is interpreted. To help address this, over the past 50 years, lawmakers, courts and the Waitangi Tribunal – an institution that investigates breaches of the treaty – have looked to the wider intention, or spirit, of the treaty, in order to define its principles. The treaty principles are not set in stone and are flexible.
The principles can act as a mechanism to help the government fulfil its obligations to Māori under the treaty, says Carwyn Jones, a lead academic in Māori law at Te Wānanga o Raukawa, an Indigenous tertiary education provider.
The principles were used in efforts to revitalise the Māori language, including making it an official language, and were used to establish a Māori Health Authority to reverse poor health outcomes for Māori, which the coalition government dismantled this year, he says.
“If those principles are redefined – and significantly weakened – [there] will be fewer legal mechanisms for Māori to have their rights recognised,” Jones says, adding that that will lead to social disruption.
Eva Corlett
Organisers are announcing the winding up of the hīkoi and asking people to slowly and safely start leaving the grounds. People have been invited back to Waitangi Park for music. The crowd is leaving as music rings out across the area.
Is the bill likely to pass?
Eva Corlett
Act negotiated the inclusion of the bill into its coalition agreement with the major centre-right National Party, however, National committed only to supporting it through its first reading and the select committee process.
The third coalition partner, the populist New Zealand First party, has also ruled out supporting it beyond these stages.
In a joint statement on Thursday, the Labour, Green and Te Pāti Māori (the Māori Party) opposition parties, called on prime minister Christopher Luxon to block what they called a “divisive” bill that was “pandering to a dangerous, reactionary fringe”.
Seymour has called on his coalition colleagues to respect the democratic process and make up their minds once the public has had its say, but at this stage, the bill will probably be voted down.
Despite that, many are angered over how the bill has reignited debate over the treaty, Jones says, adding that he believes it has stirred up anti-Māori views and eroded the Māori/Crown relationship.
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