By Mohamed Shafkath
On November 14, 2024, a video clip from the parliament of New Zealand surfaced the internet. The video shows Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke, the youngest MP of the current parliament, representing the Te Pāti Māori tearing up a draft of the Treaty Principles Bill, while performing a haka, the traditional war cry of the Māori.
She chanted, “Ka Mate, Ka Mate! Ka Ora, Ka Ora!”, meaning “It is death, it is death! It is life, it is life!” Netizens soon grabbed on to this video and made the haka trending for the following weeks.
What happened that day?
By all accounts, November 14 was a fiery day for the parliament of New Zealand. Politicians had the chance to debate the Treaty Principles Bill for the first time. Willie Jackson, an MP of the Labour Party, was kicked out of the debating chamber after refusing to apologize after calling ACT party leader, David Seymour “a liar.”
David Seymour was also accused of “pulling the strings and running the country like the KKK” by the co-leader of the Te Pāti Māori, Rawiri Waititi. When Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke was asked to reveal her party’s voting position, she stood up, began performing the haka, tearing up the copy of the bill.
The rest of the MPs from the Te Pāti Māori joined the haka, following them several members of the Green Party and Labour Party, and some spectators from the public gallery also joined them. Despite all this drama and clashes that day, the Treaty Principle Bill managed to pass its first reading.
The public also showed their resistance to the proposed legislation. On the 7th of November protesters gathered outside the New Zealand Parliament and Seymour’s electorate office in protest its introduction. Lorde, Octavia Spencer, Jason Momoa, and Chris Martin of Coldplay were some celebrities who expressed their opposition to the Bill.
The significant public reaction to the bill was the Hīkoi mō te Tiriti (“March for the Treaty”). The hīkoi (march) began in Cape Reinga, the northernmost point of New Zealand and made its way through the North Island, Auckland and reached the parliament in Wellington on November 14, the day of the first reading, with almost 20,000 supporters.
On November 19, the final day of the hīkoi, over 42,000 supporters gathered in the parliament grounds. Students and Pākehā (Non-Māori, European New Zealanders) also joined the hīkoi. Wellington police have said there have been “no issues” and that hīkoi marchers have been “peaceful”, however, there was disruption to transport across parts of the Central Business District. The hīkoi presented a petition against the bill with 203,653 signatures.
The hīkoi has changed politicians’ perception towards the bill. Prime minister Christopher Luxon’s National Party has stated that they won’t be supporting the bill in its second reading, despite their support for it during the first reading. The bill will now undergo further scrutiny and public submissions through the Justice Committee, which will play a crucial role in determining its future.
The Treaty Principles Bill
On February 6, 1840, at Waitangi, in the Bay of Islands, the representatives of the British Crown and more than 500 Māori chiefs signed the Treaty of Waitangi. It is considered as the founding document of New Zealand establishing the legal frameworks for the relationship between the British Crown and the Māori.
This plays a key role in New Zealand’s history and continues to influence the relationship between the two parties. The main point of conflict with the treaty is that the translation of the two versions (English and Māori) do not match with each other in certain contexts.
In 1975, 135 years after the Treaty of Waitangi was signed, the Labour Party passed the Treaty of Waitangi Act 1975 established the Waitangi Tribunal and provided a legal framework for addressing claims by Māori regarding breaches of the Treaty by the Crown. The Waitangi Tribunal is a permanent commission of inquiry that investigates claims brought by Māori.
The Waitangi Tribunal has the power to interpret the Treaty. The ACT party says that New Zealanders have not been democratically consulted when interpreting the principles, and the newly proposed Treaty Principles Bill is an attempt to incorporate the voices of all New Zealanders through a democratic parliamentary process, rather than through tribunals and courts.
The newly proposed Treaty Principles Bill outlines three main principles: the government has full power to govern and make laws in the best interests of everyone; the Crown recognizes, respects, and protects the rights of hapū and iwi Māori under the Treaty of Waitangi at the time of signing, but any differing rights will only be recognized if agreed upon in a historical treaty claim settlement; and everyone is equal before the law, entitled to equal protection, benefit, and enjoyment of fundamental human rights without discrimination.
The ACT party’s campaign website for this bill (treaty.nz) says that the interpretation of the treaty as a ‘partnership’ has led to the people being divided into two: land people (tangata whenua) and Treaty people (tangata triti). It further claims each group has different political and legal rights, and this has led to co-governance arrangements and racial quotas in public institutions. The significant part of the problem was that New Zealanders were never consulted on this change.
What does this mean for the Māori?
Māoris are Polynesian settlers in New Zealand. Their ocean migration to the land of New Zealand happened during the late 13th or early 14th century. Over time, they established their own unique Māori culture. Even though the treaty of Waitangi has given them tribal autonomy, there were conflicts between both communities, mainly on land disputes and its impacts.
The opposition to the bill from the Māori, addresses both the current political context and the historical context of New Zealand. The basis for the opposition and the criticism to the bill comes from the perspective that it undermines the Treaty of Waitangi and its interpretations.
The Waitangi Tribunal’s report inquiring about the Treaty Principles Bill, states, “Yet by engaging with this policy the Crown is sanctioning a process that will take away indigenous rights.”
It further goes on to say, “We have found that the Treaty Principles Bill policy is unfair, discriminatory, and inconsistent with the principles of partnership and reciprocity, active protection, good government, equity, and redress, and contrary to the article 2 guarantee of rangatiratanga (chieftainship of the Māori).”
It also notices the crown’s failure to engage with the Māori on this policy. The tribunal recommended the Treaty Principles Bill policy to be abolished along with its other recommendations to rectify its shortcomings.
The ACT party is also accused of hiding their racism under the mantra of equal rights for all New Zealanders, they are also accused of taking advantage of the current coalition government to use the parliament to act as the judge, jury and the executioner, where the representation of the indigenous community is very low.
In conclusion, what the world needs to learn from the hīkoi and the opposition to the bill is the respect for culture and history of communities, the respect should not be limited to being indigenous or not or being minority or not.
However, respect and inclusivity are not the same thing, it’s a matter of the right person being in the right place, regardless of race, religion and color.
David Seymour, the villain of the story, is a Māori himself. The new Bill, being successful in spreading its rhetoric, failed to address its primary stakeholder. Continuation of this act any further would result in opposite of what the bill tries to portray.
Ka Mate, Ka Mate! Ka Ora, Ka Ora!
Mohamed Shafkath is an independent researcher and analyst at Factum. He can be reached through shafkath@factum.lk.
Factum is an Asia-Pacific-focused think tank on International Relations, Tech Cooperation, and Strategic Communications accessible via www.factum.lk.
The views expressed here are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect the organization’s.
