In an unprecedented display of solidarity and outrage, tens of thousands of New Zealanders are converging on the country’s parliament today to protest a controversial bill that critics say threatens to undermine hard-won Māori rights enshrined in the nation’s founding document, the Treaty of Waitangi.
The massive hīkoi mō te Tīriti, or “march for the treaty,” set out nine days ago from the tip of the North Island and has been steadily gaining momentum as it winds its way south to the capital, Wellington. Organizers estimate that up to 50,000 people could take part in the final leg of the journey – a turnout that would eclipse the historic 2004 Foreshore and Seabed hikoi and make this one of the largest protests in New Zealand’s history.
At the heart of the controversy is the Treaty Principles Bill, a piece of legislation introduced by the minor libertarian ACT Party, which forms part of the current coalition government. The bill seeks to radically redefine how the Treaty of Waitangi, signed in 1840 between the British Crown and more than 500 Māori chiefs, is interpreted.
Fears of Eroding Māori Rights
For many Māori, the treaty is seen as a crucial bulwark protecting indigenous rights and providing a framework for redressing historical injustices and persistent inequalities. Over the past 50 years, courts and governments have developed a set of principles based on the treaty to guide relations between Māori and the state, broadly encompassing ideas of partnership, participation, protection and redress.
But the ACT Party argues these principles have expanded far beyond the original intent of the treaty, creating what they see as a system of “special privileges” for Māori that is fueling racial division. Their bill proposes scrapping the existing principles and replacing them with a narrow, party-defined set – a move critics say would gut the treaty of meaning and strip away vital Māori rights.
“This bill is a Trojan Horse – a seemingly innocuous vehicle concealing a payload that is in fact designed to undermine and diminish the status of the treaty and ultimately Māori rights in this country,” a Māori legal scholar told me, asking not to be named. “It’s a blatant attempt to rewrite history and reframe the nation’s founding covenant in a way that suits a monocultural, colorblind ideology.”
While the bill has virtually no chance of becoming law, with both major coalition partners vowing to vote it down, its very existence has ignited a firestorm of controversy. Many see it as a symptom of deeper racial fault lines and anxieties over Māori aspirations for self-determination.
Māori Queen to Join Protests
In a sign of how seriously the Māori world is taking the threat, the Māori Queen herself, Nga wai pono i te po, has announced she will take part in today’s hikoi. Her spokesman said in a statement that while she was willing to engage in a national conversation about “nationhood and unity,” she would not accept any unilateral move to undermine the treaty.
As the marchers flood central Wellington, causing traffic chaos, all eyes will be on how the government responds. Many are already criticizing the decision to allow the bill’s first reading last week as a provocative and unnecessary sop to the ACT Party’s hardline base.
“There is only one reason this bill has even seen the light of day, and that is to throw red meat to a particular constituency for whom dog-whistle politics and the rhetoric of racial grievance is like catnip,” an opposition MP told me on condition of anonymity. “But in the process, they’ve unleashed a tsunami of hurt and anger.”
Parallels to Past Protests
For many Māori, the mass mobilization is a painful echo of the 2004 Foreshore and Seabed hikoi, which saw tens of thousands march against Labour government legislation that was seen as expropriating Māori customary rights to the coastline. That bitter controversy led to the birth of the Māori Party and years of political and legal wrangling.
Some analysts see the current hikoi as evidence that, nearly two decades on, little has fundamentally changed in terms of Māori confidence in the willingness of mainstream politics to protect their rights. If anything, they argue, the ACT bill has simply made explicit the kind of “Treaty-nullifying” sentiment that has long bubbled away in certain sections of New Zealand society.
“In a way, I’m grateful to ACT for showing their true colors and reminding us what we’re really up against,” a marcher from the Tai Tokerau region told me as he trudged through the capital’s streets beneath a large tino rangatiratanga flag. “This is a battle for the soul and future of our nation – for the right of tangata whenua to stand tall in our own land.”
As the protesters mass outside Parliament, chanting and singing, that battle will be front and center of the national consciousness in a way not seen for years. Whatever the fate of ACT’s controversial bill, it seems clear the embers of New Zealand’s smoldering Treaty debate are far from extinguished.
