Thousands of Māori demonstrators took to the streets across New Zealand on Tuesday morning, protesting against the new government’s policies that Māori say will undo decades of Indigenous progress.
Protesters blocked traffic on major roads and lined city streets while calling on the coalition to abandon plans to review the Treaty of Waitangi, the country’s 180-year-old founding document signed between the Crown and Māori leaders.
The new government recently announced it would restrict the use of the Māori language in government organizations and abolish anti-smoking legislation and the Māori Health Authority, at a time when health problems, including lung cancer, disproportionately affect Māori.
The protests were organized by Te Pāti Māori, a Māori political party that increased its seats in Parliament from two to six in October’s election. The day also marks the inauguration of New Zealand’s 54th government.
“We will not accept being second-class citizens and being demoted by this government,” Te Pāti Māori co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer told the Guardian after a protest in Wellington that drew nearly a thousand people outside Parliament House marched.
“Our people are extremely concerned about this government and the repeal of this kaupapa [policy] That has benefited Māori,” she added, citing the Treaty of Waitangi as the basis for previous policies that benefited Māori.
According to local media reports, protesters gathered at major highway entrances during rush hour in Auckland, New Zealand’s largest city, waving Māori flags and carrying signs. Many of the protesters then got into cars and formed a procession downtown. Protesters also demonstrated in dozens of smaller centers such as Rotorua, where 400 demonstrators marched down the city’s main street.
“All the gains we had to beg for will be pushed back 50 years and we will be forced to try again,” said Melody Te Patu Wilkie, 52, who organized the protests in the west coast city of New Plymouth. She expected 40 demonstrators to come. Instead, about 400 showed up.
“I do this for my mokopuna [grandchildren] who are too young to have their own voice,” said Te Patu Wilkie, a grandmother of six.
The new government, a coalition of National, Act and New Zealand First parties, has said it will review the Treaty of Waitangi and allow Parliament to debate whether the nation should hold a referendum on shared government to keep the Māori away.
A referendum on co-governance was a central policy of Act, a libertarian party that is now one of the three parties in the governing coalition. However, Christopher Luxon, the current New Zealand prime minister and leader of the conservative National Party, said during the election campaign that a referendum on co-governance would be “divisive and unhelpful”.
Act chairman David Seymour called the protests a “sad day” for New Zealand democracy. He said in a statement that a referendum was “necessary to ensure a healthy debate about whether our future lies in co-government and differential rights based on descent or whether we want to be a modern, multi-ethnic liberal democracy where every New Zealander lives.” .” has the same rights.”
Te Pāti Māori protested in Parliament as individual MPs stepped forward to pledge allegiance to King Charles III, New Zealand’s head of state. In a break with protocol, all six Te Pāti Māori MPs first swore allegiance to their grandchildren under the Treaty of Waitangi before pledging their allegiance to King Charles.
MPs are required by law to swear allegiance to New Zealand’s head of state before assuming their role as MPs in Parliament. At the start of New Zealand’s last government in 2020, Te Pāti Māori co-leader Rawiri Waititi objected to the absence of the Treaty of Waitangi from the oath.