The Hui: Treaty activists ‘expect 50,000’ to join protest hīkoi

Tuesday, 15 October 2024

Activist group Toitū te Tiriti is anticipating 50-thousand marchers will join its planned week-long protest hīkoi against the Treaty Principles Bill next month.

Toitū te Tiriti spokesperson Eru Kapa-Kingi revealed details of the hīkoi itinerary to The Hui host Julian Wilcox on Monday and said he was confident the protest would attract wide support.

“I'm thinking north of 50,000. That might be aspirational, but we've reached a million as a people. And millions of others, Tangata Tiriti support the kaupapa”

Kapa-Kingi was joined on The Hui by veteran activist Hone Harawira in a move to signal the joint mobilisation of long-time and rangatahi activists.

The hīkoi is the latest in a series of protests against the direction of the coalition government’s policies affecting Māori in the past year.

Harawira says it’s the next generation of protesters who are leading this hīkoi activation.

“I am amazed and positively astounded at the energy and connection that the rangatahi are bringing to this kaupapa.”

“The Government needs to be on their toes if they think they are going to keep getting away with the damage they’ve been doing to Māori.”

The hīkoi will follow in the footsteps of the late Dame Whina Cooper’s Māori land march in 1975 and the Foreshore and Seabed protests in 2004 when 15,000 marched on Parliament.

Kapa-Kingi expects that with the power of social media today, November’s protest will top that number easily.

But unlike the 1975 march which took more than a month to walk from the top of the North Island to Parliament, Kapa-Kingi says next month’s activation will be concentrated over a week.

He wanted it to be truncated for greater impact with younger supporters.

“We are the generation that’s no muck around. Straight up! Straight up the guts!”

Marchers will gather at Cape Reinga at dawn on Monday November 11.

Over the next week, they will march through Kaitaia, Whangārei, Dargarville to Auckland’s North Shore. They will then walk across the Harbour Bridge to Bastion Point, and on to Huntly, Hamilton, Rotorua, Hastings, Palmerston North and Porirua.

Participants will travel by car or bus between towns in order to gather at Parliament on November 19 when Act leader David Seymour’s bill is introduced to parliament.

Eru Kapa-Kingi says he believes the hīkoi will not be divisive - but instead will be all inclusive encompassing Tangata Tiriti / non-Māori alongside Māori.

Kapa-Kingi said many non-Māori tautoko or support the concerns across Māoridom about the Government’s direction.

He expected hīkoi in other parts of the country would “scaffold off” the central hīkoi itinerary released on Monday and that those in the South Island, Tairāwhiti, and Taranaki would arrange marches to connect with it.

Harawira asked those who could not manage the trip to Wellington on November 19 to march where they were.

“Those who can, will. To those who can’t in small towns and communities: hit the road in your town.”

The planned hīkoi is the latest in a series of activations and hui in response to coalition government policies relating to Māori. As well as the Treaty Principles Bill, the coalition has disbanded Te Aka Whai Ora, the Māori Health Authority; repealed section 7AA which required Oranga Tamariki to keep children in care connected to their culture; and begun moves to strip Treaty of Waitangi provisions from 28 pieces of legislation. Community providers have had funding cut and government departments have been told to use their English names ahead of those in te reo.

Already this year, tens of thousands of people have attended activations at Tūrangawaewae, Ratana, Waitangi and Heretaunga against the coalition’s policies and another one led by Ngāi Tahu is planned near Christchurch next week.

Itinerary:

November 11:

Te Rerenga Wairua/ Cape Reinga

Kaitaia

Whangārei (overnight)

November 12

Whangarei

Tunatahi/Dargaville

Te Rakipaewhenua / North Shore (overnight)

November 13

Te Rakipaewhenua / North Shore

Takaparawhau / Bastion Point

Rāhui Pōkeka / Huntly (overnight)

November 14

Rāhui Pōkeka / Huntly

Kirikiriroa / Hamilton

Rotorua (overnight)

November 15

Rotorua

Heretaunga / Hastings (overnight)

November 16

Heretaunga / Hastings

Papaiōea / Palmerston North (overnight)

November 17

Papaiōea / Palmerston North

Porirua (overnight)

November 18

Hui

November 19

Porirua

Paremata / Parliament

– Made with support from Te Māngai Pāho and New Zealand On Air.