Thousands March on New Zealand’s Capital Against Review of Indigenous Treaties | News about protests

Controversial legislation overhauls the 184-year-old Treaty of Waitangi, which gives Maori tribes land rights.

Thousands of people have joined a nine-day march on New Zealand’s capital over a controversial bill that would redefine the country’s founding agreement between the British and the indigenous Maori people.

New Zealand police reported about 10,000 people marched through the city of Rotorua in protest of the Treaty Principles Bill on Friday, met by hundreds waving the Maori flag as they headed south to the capital Wellington, about 450km away.

The march – or hikoi in the Maori language – is expected to reach Wellington on Tuesday, with participants staging rallies on their passage through towns and cities across the country after the bill passed its first parliamentary reading on Thursday.

The measure revises the 184-year-old Treaty of Waitangi, a document that gives Maori tribes broad rights to keep their lands and protect their interests in return for ceding governance to the British. 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 the bill it had promised during last year’s election, arguing that those rights should also apply to non-Indigenous citizens.

Maori people and their supporters say the bill threatens racial division and undermines the rights of the country’s indigenous people, who make up about 20 percent of its 5.3 million people.

As parliamentarians voted on the bill on Thursday, 22-year-old lawmaker Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke, of the Te Pati Maori Party, tore up a copy of the bill and led her colleagues in a traditional haka dance.

Parliament was briefly suspended as people in the gallery joined in, their shouts drowning out the debate in the chamber.

The measure passed first reading by 68 votes to 54 – one vote short of Parliament’s 123 MPs due to Maipi-Clarke’s subsequent suspension – but it does not appear likely to become law.

Coalition partners the National Party and New Zealand First are only supporting the legislation through the first of three readings to fulfill an agreement with ACT New Zealand.

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon, leader of the National Party, said on Thursday the principles of the treaty had been negotiated and debated for 184 years and it was “simplistic” for ACT New Zealand leader David Seymour to suggest they could be resolved “with the stroke of a pen” .

Seymour said people opposing the legislation want to “stir up” fear and division. “My mission is to empower every person,” he added.