Sydney, Australia, Nov 19 (EFE).- A nine-day protest march culminated Tuesday in tens of thousands of demonstrators converging on New Zealand’s parliament grounds in defiance of a contentious bill that sets out to radically reinterpret the country’s founding treaty between Māori and the Crown.
ACT party leader David Seymour speaks at the announcement of the new government in New Zealand, in the Banquet Hall of the Parliament Buildings in Wellington, New Zealand, 24 November 2023. EFE-EPA FILE/MARK COOT
Police first estimated participation in the march at 35,000 people and later updated that to 42,000, while the Public Service Association put the crowd at 55,000, making it possibly the largest in the country’s history.
The Hīkoi mō te Tiriti (march for the treaty) began on Nov. 11 at Cape Reinga at the tip of the North Island and wound its way down to Wellington, a distance of more than 1,000 kilometers.
Reaching the capital, the march was ed by more people, stretching around 2 kilometers through the main streets on its way to government while demonstrators sung and waved the Māori national flag, a symbol of sovereignty.
The protesters oppose a controversial bill to reinterpret the principles of the 1840 Treaty of Waitangi, signed between the Crown and more than 500 Māori chiefs, and which is crucial to upholding Māori rights.
Outside parliament Te Pāti Māori (the Māori Party) co-leader Rawiri Waititi spoke to the crowd and led a chant of “Kill the bill! Kill the bill!” which prompted its architect, libertarian ACT party leader David Seymour, to walk back inside.
“The whole world is watching!” Waititi shouted as Seymour retreated.
Māori Queen Nga wai hono i te po was also among the protesters.
“The Māori Queen is willing to help lead a conversation about nationhood and national unity but will not accept a unilateral process that undermines Te Tiriti o Waitangi,” her spokesperson, Ngira Simmons, said in a statement on Monday.
“Our nation’s strength lies in honoring the promises we make to each other.”
The protest has in recent days garnered from stars such as Hawaiian Jason Momoa, star of Aquaman and who spends much of his time in the Oceanian country, and British singer Chris Martin, from the band Coldplay.
The ACT party is the sole er of the bill, which ed its first reading in dramatic fashion last Thursday when parliament was disrupted by shouting, an ejection and a haka.
It was led by New Zealand’s youngest MP, Te Pāti Māori’s Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke, 22, who proceeded to rip up a copy of the bill before she was ed in the haka by of her party, opposition lawmakers and the public gallery. Parliament was then suspended for an hour.
The bill was referred to the select committee for six-month public hearing process. Ruling coalition partners National and NZ First voted in favor as per their agreement, but have ruled out further for it, along with all opposition parties, meaning the bill will likely fail in its second reading next year.
Critics say it undermines the treaty and its principles, threatens Māori rights and promotes divisiveness.
Seymour claims the treaty grants more privileges to Māori and wants to ensure “equality” for all before the law.
Opposition Green party co-leader Chloe Swarbrick on the day of the reading rebuffed Seymour’s claim the bill was about equality.
“Pick almost any statistic that you like. Housing, incarceration, health, life expectancy: Māori get unfair and unequal outcomes because of unfair and unequal treatment which started with the Crown’s intentional violent actions to dishonor Te Tiriti o (The Treaty of) Waitangi,” she said.
Māori make up about 20 percent of New Zealand’s population of more than 5 million, and experience disproportionately high rates of poverty, incarceration, illness, domestic abuse and suicide, among other issues. EFE
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