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The hīkoi has reached parliament, filling the grounds and swelling out into the surrounding roads and streets.
It is shoulder to shoulder, with people and flags stretching as far as the eye can see in every direction. The notorious Wellington wind is whipping the flags high, their flicks and pops adding to the cacophony.
Continue reading...Police say about 42,000 people gathered at parliament in the last stage of the nine-day protest in opposition to the Treaty of Waitangi bill
A protest march estimated to be one of the largest in New Zealand history arrived at parliament on Tuesday, flooding the grounds with song in a display of unity against a controversial bill seeking to reinterpret the country’s founding treaty between Māori and the crown.
Police said around 42,000 people took part in the march, in what was likely New Zealand’s largest-ever protest in support of Māori rights.
Continue reading...Voting temporarily suspended amid disruptions including a Māori party MP ripping up a copy of the bill
New Zealand’s parliament has erupted into fiery debate, personal attacks and a haka over a controversial bill that proposes to radically alter the way New Zealand’s treaty between Māori and the crown is interpreted.
The treaty principles bill was tabled by the libertarian Act party – a minor partner in New Zealand’s coalition government – and passed its first reading on Thursday, amid scathing speeches and disruptions.
Continue reading...The widely criticised bill aims to redefine Treaty of Waitangi principles that guide relations between Māori and ruling authorities
A controversial bill that seeks to radically change how New Zealand’s treaty between Māori and the Crown is interpreted in modern times will be introduced to parliament on Thursday, nearly two weeks ahead of its initial schedule.
The Treaty of Waitangi is considered New Zealand’s founding document and is instrumental in upholding Māori rights. The bill will be tabled in parliament by the libertarian Act party, a minor partner in New Zealand’s coalition government, which has regularly called for an end to “division by race”.
Continue reading...Prof Rawinia Higgins tells the Guardian that te reo Māori is under threat from the rightwing coalition despite long-running efforts to revive it
New Zealand’s Māori language commissioner has described government policies to limit the use of the Indigenous language in the public service as “a risk” to the half-century effort to revive it.
“Any affront to the efforts that we have been making has to be taken seriously,” the commissioner, Prof Rawinia Higgins, told the Guardian. “We’re seeing a reaction – only from a small corner of people, but enough that we don’t want that to snowball.”
Continue reading...Only daughter and youngest child of the former Māori king Tuheitia Pootatau Te Wherowhero VII ascends to the throne in emotional ceremony
The second ever Māori queen in the eight-dynasty reign of the Kiingitanga movement in New Zealand has ascended to the throne in an emotional ceremony attended by thousands at Turangawaewae marae.
On Thursday morning Māori leaders hailed her as the “new dawn”.
Continue reading...1News Verian poll comes amid growing concern the coalition’s policy direction will wind back Māori rights
Nearly half of New Zealanders believe the government’s policies have increased racial tensions, new polling shows, as pressure mounts on the government over policy changes that many fear will undermine Māori rights.
The 1News Verian poll released on Monday found 46% of voters believed racial tensions have worsened as a result of the coalition’s policies, while 37% said there had been no difference and 10% thought tensions had reduced. Another 7% of respondents said they didn’t know or preferred not to comment.
Continue reading...Experts say policy changes that include scrapping Māori-led programs will harm communities and put New Zealand’s ‘great reputation’ at risk
Leading Māori figures from across New Zealand have sounded the alarm over the government’s changes to policies that affect Māori, after analysis by the Guardian highlighted the far-reaching scope of the proposals.
The policy shifts proposed by the rightwing coalition have been described by experts as “chilling” and “dangerous” and have created a “deeply fractured” relationship between Māori and the crown, or ruling authorities.
Continue reading...The right-wing government had told Pharmac that it no longer needed to consider the Treaty of Waitangi in its funding decisions
A director of New Zealand’s medicine funding agency Pharmac has resigned in protest of a government directive telling the agency that it no longer needed to consider the Treaty of Waitangi, the country’s founding document which upholds Māori rights, in its funding decisions.
In a letter to Pharmac, the associate health minister and leader of the libertarian Act party David Seymour set out his expectations of the government agency, including his thoughts on how the principles of Treaty of Waitangi, or Te Tiriti o Waitangi, should be applied.
Continue reading...At the opening of parliament, lawmakers for New Zealand’s Māori party used a word for Charles that can also be used to describe skin conditions
Māori party MPs have departed from the traditional oath of allegiance to King Charles III at the opening of New Zealand’s 54th parliament, sparking a debate about whether the Māori word they used to describe him meant “Charles” or “skin rash”.
As part of the formalities to open parliament, MPs must swear allegiance to New Zealand’s head of state, something Te Pāti Māori, a Māori political party, has long protested against. MPs can say the oath in either English or Te reo Māori.
Continue reading...The new government recently announced it would dial back use of Māori language in government organisations, and scrap Māori Health Authority
Thousands of Māori protesters took to the streets across New Zealand on Tuesday morning, objecting to policies of the new government that Māori say will unravel decades of indigenous progress.
Protesters blocked traffic on key roads and lined streets in towns and cities while calling for the coalition to scrap plans to review the Treaty of Waitangi, the country’s 180-year-old founding document which was signed between the Crown and Māori leaders.
Continue reading...Hāmiora Bailey says wall to wall Charles III coverage is unappealing to Indigenous people and has devised a solution
A Māori artist has designed a way for the masses to tune out of royal coverage, with a web browser plugin that replaces all monarchy and coronation stories with Indigenous news.
Despite a distance of more that 18,000kms from the palace, New Zealand news headlines have featured a steady flow of royal family gossip: the latest potential snubbing, deep-dive analysis of the new king’s conduct, invitation list scandals and features on the coronation quiche.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Aboriginal Olympian Nova Peris says ‘change begins with listening’ as campaigners from 12 countries ask for ‘process of reparatory justice to commence’
Australians have joined Indigenous leaders and politicians across the Commonwealth to demand King Charles III make a formal apology for the effects of British colonisation, make reparations by redistributing the wealth of the British crown, and return artefacts and human remains.
Days out from Charles’s coronation in London, campaigners for republic and reparations movements in 12 countries have written a letter asking the new monarch to start a process towards “a formal apology and for a process of reparatory justice to commence”.
Continue reading...New Zealand tribe says only a handful of its cultural taonga, or treasures, are left after successive waves of looting during colonial times
A Māori tribe in New Zealand is calling for the return of treasured relics listed for sale by the auction house Sotheby’s.
The auctioneer is in the process of selling a number of Māori artefacts from around the 18th and 19th century – some of which local tribes say are crucial cultural taonga (treasures) and should be returned.
Continue reading...While all lawmakers offered condolences to the royal family, several also discussed the monarchy’s fraught and complex history
As New Zealand’s parliament gathered to pay tribute to the Queen, honours and admiration were mixed with sharp criticism of a monarchy built on “stolen land, stolen resources, and stolen treasure”.
On Tuesday, parliament held a special debate to allow politicians of all parties to acknowledge the monarch’s death. While all offered condolences to the royal family for their loss, a number of MPs also discussed the monarchy’s fraught and complex history.
Continue reading...The filters, which also appear on Instagram, had prompted questions over the treatment of sacred cultural artefacts on tech platforms
The social media company that owns Snapchat has removed filters that applied images of sacred Māori tattoos to users’ faces, after the discovery of the culturally offensive filters on social media apps provoked an outcry in New Zealand.
An investigation by Radio New Zealand revealed filters featuring tā moko tattoos have proliferated on social media apps such as Instagram and Snapchat.
Continue reading...Anti-racism video by Marama Davidson featured chocolate labelled in te reo Māori, breaching rules against product promotion
A New Zealand minister has had to revise her anti-racism social media posts featuring a popular brand of chocolate, after the prime minister requested their removal because it breached cabinet rules about product promotion.
Green party MP Marama Davidson posted a video of herself to Instagram on Monday holding five blocks of Whittakers creamy milk chocolate, which have recently been rebranded with the Māori translation Miraka Kirīmi in honour of the upcoming Māori language week – te wiki o te reo Māori. She also posted photographs on Twitter and Facebook.
Continue reading...Champion of Māori rights honoured by Queen for life of work dedicated to improving ‘economic, cultural and social standing of Māori communities’
A Māori leader, educator and historian who has dedicated his life to the betterment of Māori and was instrumental in developing Māori fishing interests has been awarded New Zealand’s highest honour.
Tā (Sir) Tipene O’Regan, 83, has been made a member of the Order of New Zealand as part of the Queen’s birthday honours list. O’Regan was awarded the distinction alongside Dame Silvia Cartwright, a former governor general and the first woman in New Zealand to become a high court judge.
Continue reading...Co-leader Rawiri Waititi, whose party is expected to become kingmakers, accuses Act of ‘emboldening racism across the country’ through its rhetoric
New Zealand’s Māori party, Te Pati Māori, which could hold the balance of power at the next election, has ruled out forming a coalition with Act and National, if the rightwing Act party stays its current policy course.
The comments came as a series of polls placed Te Pāti Māori as “kingmakers” in the upcoming New Zealand election. Asked by the Guardian whether the party would consider a National-Act coalition, based on current policies and rhetoric, co-leader Rawiri Waititi said: “It’s a no. Absolutely. It’s a hard no.”
Continue reading...The major landowner says it has been on the ‘other side of history’ and wants to honour treaty
New Zealand’s presbyterian church will offer any future land sales to Māori iwi first, as the institution reckons with its role in colonisation and land confiscations in Aotearoa.
The institution is a significant landowner across the country, with more than $1.5bn in land assets and 400 properties. Their decision comes at a time of increasing scrutiny on the church and its role in the colonisation of New Zealand, including as a beneficiary of confiscated or stolen land.
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