Thousands of people marched to the nation’s capital on Friday after a controversial bill reinterpreting the nation’s 184-year-old founding document passed its first hurdle in Congress.
In conjunction with the nine-day march to Wellington (Hikoi), several rallies against the Treaty Principles Bill are being held in towns across the country. It is expected to arrive in the capital on Tuesday.
An estimated 10,000 people marched through Rotorua, about 450 miles north of Wellington, New Zealand Police said in a statement. Hundreds of people greeted the participants, some wearing traditional costumes, waving Maori flags and chanting.
Maori leaders performed the haka, a Maori dance traditionally used as a challenge to opponents, on Thursday at the first parliamentary hearing on a bill seeking to redefine the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi.
22-year-old MP Hana Rawhiti Maipi-Clark tore up a copy of the bill and led a haka in parliament, joined by other Māori and some visitors to the general gallery.
First signed in 1840 between the British Crown and more than 500 Maori chiefs, the treaty sets out how the parties agree to govern. Interpretations of the provisions of this document continue to guide law and policy today.
The ACT New Zealand Party, a junior partner in the ruling centre-right coalition, last week unveiled the legislation it promised during last year’s election.
The party argues that policies designed to uplift Māori are harming non-Indigenous people, and criticizes the sharing of some governance issues between the state and Māori.
But Māori and their allies say the bill would undermine the rights of indigenous people, who make up about 20% of the country’s 5.3 million population.
Coalition partners the National Party and New Zealand First only supported the bill through the first of three readings. Both parties have said they do not support passage of the bill, which almost certainly means it will not become law.
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon reaffirmed on Thursday that the National Party would not support progress on the bill beyond its first reading.
