MP Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke, from Te Pati Maori (Maori Party), speaks during a demonstration in front of Parliament, in Wellington, on November 19, 2024. SANKA VIDANAGAMA / AFP The whole world will remember the image of Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke, a young 22-year-old Maori MP, tearing up the bill on November 14 then performing the haka “ Ka Mate” – the sung dance originally practiced by the Maori during conflicts to impress their adversaries – taken up by a large part of the Assembly. But also that of more than tens of thousands of New Zealanders – Maori or not – who came to demonstrate peacefully during a hikoi, in traditional clothes, sometimes after having traveled tens of kilometers, to the Parliament in Wellington, on November 19 . Unheard of on this Pacific island of 5 million inhabitants, 17% of whom are Maori. This shows the importance of the issue, namely the risk of a modification of the Treaty of Waitangi, almost sacred on the island. Signed on February 6, 1840 between the British Crown and Maori chiefs, considered the founding act of the country, it confirmed the rights of this first people to their lands and established that British authority must protect indigenous powers and traditions. . An essential text for all New Zealanders, which was also a first for the global struggle for the recognition of the peoples of first nations. The bill adopted at first reading at the Ruche (name of the New Zealand Parliament) on November 14 returns to this almost two-hundred-year-old treaty. Proposed by David Seymour, leader of the libertarian ACT party, although himself of Maori origin, it provides that the rights guaranteed by the treaty extend to all citizens and no longer just to Maori. The bill would also make it possible to reverse court decisions taken in the 1960s and 1970s to repair the injustices suffered by the Maoris and gradually integrated into national laws, in particular regarding the return of land to the tribes: “The “The agreement gave rise to race-based preferences in health care, enormous consultation requirements for development and even racial quotas within the public institution,” he said. during an interview with the Financial Times. Equality is not the norm However, equality is far from being the norm in New Zealand. Indeed, Māori continue to experience significantly higher rates of poverty, unemployment and incarceration than their fellow citizens. According to Health New Zealand’s annual report for 2023, the life expectancy of Maori men is even eight years lower than the New Zealand average, and seven years for women. “We cannot live equally if one people, the indigenous people, live ‘less’,” said Debbie Ngarewa-Packer, co-leader of Te Pati Maori (Maori Party), during an interview with the BBC. You have 55.59% of this article left to read. The rest is reserved for subscribers.
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