by Arama Rata
Māori activists began a national mobilization on November 10 to oppose proposed legislation threatening Māori Treaty rights.
The mobilization takes the form of a hīkoi, a protest tactic used to build many of the largest movements in New Zealand’s history, and through which some of the most significant Māori political developments have been achieved.
The hīkoi began at the Northern tip of New Zealand, and will travel the length of the North Island over eight days, covering some 1100 km, culminating in protestors descending on Parliament grounds in Wellington on November 19.
The mass mobilization is being organized by Toitū Te Titiri, a group closely linked to The Māori Party, who hold six seats in New Zealand’s Parliament.
Earlier this year, on May 30, the same group organized a strike involving tens of thousands in forty locations across the nation of 5.2 million people (approximately one million of whom are Māori).
Since gaining power in 2023, New Zealand’s right-wing coalition government has proposed a suite of legislations deemed ‘anti-Māori’. This included proposed laws that would: disestablish the Māori Health Authority;
Bypass Māori consultation on major development projects; remove the right of councils to determine whether to establish Māori wards; remove ‘smokefree’ polices; and make it easier for Māori children to be taken by the State and placed with non-Māori families.
The most contentious of the bills, however, is the Treaty Principles Bill, which would redefine the principles used by the Crown to interpret the Māori and English language versions of the Treaty of Waitangi, the nation’s founding document.
The hīkoi began with a dawn ceremony at Te Rerenga Wairua (the departing place of spirits), and comprises a team of relay runners who will ‘takahi whenua’ (tread the earth physically) for the full length of the hikoi, as well as car convoys traveling between major towns and cities, where mass marches will occur as the hīkoi builds momentum.
Thousands participated in marches today as the hīkoi moved through Te Kao, Kaitaia, Kaeo and Kawakawa, before reaching Whangārei where the group will spend the night.
This Wednesday the hīkoi will reach New Zealand’s largest city, Auckland, where tens of thousands are expected to join the march as it crosses the Auckland Harbour Bridge.
The hīkoi will then continue to Huntly, Hamilton, Rotorua, Hastings, Palmerston North, and Porirua, before arriving at Parliament Wellington.
Dr. Arama Rata is a Māori independent researcher in Aotearoa, New Zealand.
—The Peoples Dispatch, peoplesdispatch.org
