Te Pāti Māori MP Hana-Rawhiti Maipa-Clarke was among those to perform a haka, at Parliament, after the first reading of the Treaty Principles Bill, on 14 November, 2024. Photo: RNZ/ Samuel Rillstone
About 1000 people gathered outside Parliament on Tuesday to protest the proposed exclusion of Te Pāti Māori MPs and what they see as punishment for exercising tikanga Māori in the house.
The organisers said the haka was a form of Māori expression and they objected to the MPs potentially being punished for exercising tikanga Māori
Their activation began only minutes after a brief debate on a recommendation to exclude the MPs, which was then adjourned until 5 June.
Toitū te Tiriti kaikōrero (spokesperson) Eru Kapa-Kingi was one of the first to address the crowd and said the haka was much bigger than the rules of Parliament.
"Our haka is a source of fear for this whare (house) even though when the All Blacks do it it's celebrated and when they use our reo and our kōwhaiwhai patterns on their companies as a form of marketing - that's when its cool to be Māori."
"But when we haka in the name of liberation we are told to be quite and told to sit down."
Kapa-Kingi said the haka was Māori culture, identity and power wrapped up as one.
"There [are] a lot of MPs in that whare... they wish they could haka like us. They wish they could do what we're doing. They wish they could takahi on the beat. They wish they could sing in time and sing on tune" he said.
Ngāti Toa rangatira Kahu Ropata explained to the crowd some of the meaning behind the haka.
Ngāti Toa are tangata whenua of the region which includes Wellington and the descendants of Te Rauparaha who composed the haka Ka Mate.
"Ka mate, ka ora. You've got two choices in life," Ropata said.
"You make the right choice or the wrong choice. You can make the choice that makes you live or the choice that... ka mate koe."
Te Pāti Māori's Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke interrupted the vote on the Treaty Principles Bill's first reading with a haka taken up by members of the opposition and people in the public gallery. Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
Te Pati Maori lawyer Tania Waikato told RNZ any punishment for practising tikanga Maori was unjust.
"This was an expression of the utter frustration that at least 270,000 people were feeling against this bill," she said, referring to the submissions made on the Treaty Principles Bill.
"This was the most racist, devise piece of legislation we have seen in our generation," she said.
Eventually, Te Pati Maori MPs made their way outside and were greeted with a fierce rendition of the same haka - Ka Mate - they may be excluded for.
Party co-leader Rawiri Waititi said waiting for the judgement to eventually come was like being on remand.
"Many of us know somebody who is on remand, waiting for sentencing."
"And they make you believe that they've done this to ensure that we had a voice in the budget [but] we always had a voice in the budget. Just because three [would be] gone there were still three that would here."
Te Pāti Māori co-leader Rawiri Waititi. Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
Waititi said he did not need the government to prolong the "psychological warfare" the party would endure.
Te Pati Maori MP Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke, who went viral for performing the haka in Parliament, told the crowd the power of the haka was evident by the reception it received around the world.
"The fear is that we're too loud. We are [so] loud that we are literally rattling the foundations of this house. We've been kicked out of the gallery, we've been kicked out of Parliament, there are no more places to kick us out from."
"It is literally that loud and it has echoed across every single nation in the world. That is the power of your voice."
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