The Maori were the original residents of the two large islands currently known as New Zealand.
A fight for Maori rights brought 42000 protestors to the New Zealand Parliament in Wellington to protest against a law to reinterpret the country’s 184-year-old founding Treaty of Waitangi between the British colonizers and the Indigenous Maori people.
The Maori were the original residents of the two large islands currently known as New Zealand. In the 1300s, the Maori travelled from East Polynesia to the uninhabited islands of New Zealand and developed their own unique culture and language during hundreds of years of isolation.
In February 1840, the Treaty of Waitangi was signed between the British and 500 Maori chiefs to officially establish New Zealand as a British colony. The treaty was presented to resolve the differences between the Maori and the British, but the English and the te reo versions of the treaty have significant differences.
The te reo Maori version guaranteed ‘rangatiratanga,’ which guaranteed the Maori people to govern themselves. However, the English translation didn’t mention any self-governance.
In the decades after 1840, the British Crown seized 90% of Maori land. Even after New Zealand gained independence, Maori people faced injustice.
To resolve disputes in the treaty, the Waitangi Tribunal was established in 1975 as a permanent body. The tribunal aimed to create a remedy for the treaty violation and solve the differences between the versions of the texts.
However, there are also other injustices, like 200,000 young people and vulnerable adults who faced physical and sexual abuse between 1950 and 2019.
On November 12, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon apologized to the victims, but it faced criticism.
One criticism was that the apology didn’t take the treaty principles into account. While they are not set in stone, they still hold significant importance for the Maori rights.
On November 14, member of Parliament David Seymour of the ACT Party introduced the controversial Treaty Principles. Seymour is a Maori, but the Maori wanted to disrupt the vote, so he staged a ceremonial dance to temporarily stop the parliamentary activities from happening.
The ACT party said that the treaty has been misunderstood all these years and has led to the dual system of different legal and political rights between the white and the Maori people. The bill wanted to end the division by race, set proper definitions for the principles, and apply them to all New Zealanders, whether Maori or not.
However, the political parties in New Zealand strongly opposed the bill, and the Maori people have criticized it as undermining the treaty and its interpretation.
The Waitangi Tribunal released a report stating that the bill violated the Treaty principles of equity, active protection, collaboration, and rangatiratanga promise.
For the bill to be passed, it must pass through three rounds. First, when the ball gets introduced, the MP suggests amendments and votes for the amended bill. 62 out of 123 votes are needed for the bill to pass.
According to Gideon Porter, a Maori journalist from New Zealand, there is no chance the bill will become law since the ACT’s coalition partners have promised to vote it down in the next stage.
The current coalition government of New Zealand was created in November 2023. It includes ACT, the National Party, and New Zealand First.
However, the right-wing parties did not clearly explain the reason for opposing the law. The coalition government, which came to power in November 2023, is widely known for taking measures to eradicate race-based politics.
One of the measures was to remove a law that allowed Maori to have a voice in environmental issues. The government also abolished the Maori Heath Authority in February.
Many people think the coalition government has ignited dangerous social divisions by just permitting the bill to be introduced in Parliament, even though it is highly likely to fail.
