New Zealand MP Performs Traditional Haka Dance In Parliament, Rips Up Copy Of Indigenous Treaty Bill – News18

Last Updated:November 14, 2024, 23:41 IST

The Maori members staged a haka to disrupt the vote on the Indigenous Treaty Bill that would reinterpret an 184-year-old treaty

New Zealand’s youngest MP Hana-Rawhiti Kareariki Maipi-Clarke has once again grabbed the headlines after a video of her staging the traditional Maori dance and ripping up a copy of a contentious bill during a House session went viral on social media.

The 22-year-old Te Pati Maori MP, who was seen performing a haka during her maiden speech in parliament last year, was joined by was soon joined by the people in the public gallery, prompting Speaker Gerry Brownlee to briefly suspend the House.

The Maori members staged a haka to disrupt the vote on the Indigenous Treaty Bill that would reinterpret an 184-year-old treaty between the British and Indigenous Maori.

First signed in 1840 between the British Crown and more than 500 Maori chiefs, the Treaty of Waitangi lays down how the two parties agreed to govern. The interpretation of clauses in the document still guides legislation and policy today.

The ACT New Zealand party, a junior partner in the ruling centre-right coalition government, last week unveiled a bill to enshrine a narrower interpretation of the Waitangi treaty in law.

As parliamentarians gathered for a preliminary vote on the bill on Thursday, Te Pati Maori MPs stood and began a haka, a traditional Maori dance made famous by New Zealand’s rugby team.

The bill is being witnessed as undermining the rights of the country’s indigenous people by many Maori and their supporters. Notably, Maoris make up around 20% of New Zealand’s 5.3 million population.

Hundreds have set out on a nine-day march, or hikoi, from New Zealand’s north to the national capital of Wellington in protest over the legislation, staging rallies in towns and cities as they move south.

(With agency inputs)