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Maori MPs' Haka Halts New Zealand Parliament Over ACT Party's Treaty of Waitangi Redefinition Bill

Nov 14, 2024, 02:56 PM

New Zealand's parliament was briefly suspended after Maori lawmakers staged a haka to protest a contentious bill proposed by the libertarian ACT Party that seeks to redefine the 184-year-old Treaty of Waitangi, the nation's founding document between the British Crown and Indigenous Maori. The bill claims that the Treaty gives excessive privileges to Māori and fuels racial divides, aiming to make all New Zealanders equal under the law. Te Pāti Māori MP Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke led the haka, a traditional Maori war dance, disrupting the parliamentary session and halting the first reading of the bill. Activists and hundreds of protesters marched toward the capital to oppose the proposed changes, which critics argue could undermine Indigenous rights.