‘A generational moment’: Hīkoi mō te Tiriti reaches Parliament
Tuesday, 19 November 2024
After 10 days, tens of thousands of people, traversing more than 1000km, a hīkoi will reach Parliament in what will be one of Aotearoa’s biggest protests in decades.
The Treaty Principles Bill has already become one of the most raucous issues in New Zealand politics. It has strained the coalition Government and attracted international attention after an unprecedented haka, led by Te Pāti Māori MP Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke.
Performing Ka Mate, her haka briefly brought Parliament to a standstill as the public joined in, along with Green and Labour MPs.
And now, Wellington itself could come to a halt - if predictions of tens of thousands of protesters come to fruition.
The capital is readying itself for a protest which organisers say will be bigger than the Foreshore and Seabed hīkoi that engulfed Parliament grounds in 2004.
Some workplaces told staff to stay home, police have brought riot gear to Parliament, and heavy fences have been laid out around the forecourt of Parliament grounds.
The Parliament itself would be closing to visitors during the morning, in a rare move which will block the public from watching debates and lawmaking in-person on Tuesday.
On the day, Te Hīkoi mō Te Tiriti (The March for The Treaty) is expected to draw upwards of 10,000 people through the streets of Wellington, as hīkoi converge in the capital after travelling from the South Island, Far North, east and west coast.
On Monday, almost all flights into the capital had been booked out and marae across the region were at capacity.
At Takapūwāhia Marae in Porirua, Ngāiti Toa was hosting about a hundred visitors who had travelled to Wellington, while campervans and trailers were parked all along the road.
At Pipitea Marae, in Wellington City, Taranaki Whānui were hosting whanaunga from Taranaki who have travelled in buses to join the hīkoi. And in Wainuiomata, Te Ātiawa were hosting the Māori Queen, Te Arikinui Nga Wai hono i te po, and her iwi Tainui.
The Kiingitanga rarely joins protests, so her attendance attracted headlines when it was confirmed on Sunday night. A Kiingitanga spokesperson, Ngira Simmonds, said the young monarch would be advocating for constitutional reform led by Māori, rather than imposed by the Crown.
“Our nation’s strength lies in honouring the promises we make to each other,” he said.
At Ngāti Toa Domain, north of Wellington on Monday, they ran out of paint at about midday.
Groups of hīkoi supporters who had travelled to Wellington sat around the domain to make protest signs and learn the updated version of a 40-year-old haka, named after the founding document, Te Tiriti o Waitangi.
Miriama Grace-Smith (Ngāti Toa) and Xöe Hall (Kai Tahu), artists from Kāpiti, arrived in a minivan painted to look like the tino rangatiratanga flag.
They brought with them a smiley old pug called Lemmy and 25 litres of red, white and black paint, which was quickly used. On the ground, freshly painted signs were drying out with messages ranging from “AROHA” to “WHAKA OFF KĀWANATANGA”.
“This is a generational moment,” Grace-Smtih said. “It is bringing together Māori, Pākehā, everyone,” added Hall.
At the Ngāti Toa Domain, there were children who had travelled from across the island with their families, alongside kaumātua, such Bob Smith.
“I will be there, with my wheelchair, to haka,” said Smith, an 84-year-old veteran of the Vietnam War who said this would be the fourth hīkoi of his lifetime. He said the Government was failing to stand up to “one man”, David Seymour. “He is wrong.”
Smith said he would haka at Parliament for his 128 mokopuna, including great-great grandchildren.
Seymour, speaking to reporters at Parliament on Monday, said he had not been invited to speak to the hīkoi. He said his Treaty Principles Bill had not caused division.
“I’d say that division was already there. I would say it is revealing division that was built up over several decades,” he said.
Seymour said New Zealand would eventually need to have a debate about its constitution and the role of Te Tiriti o Waitangi.
Te Pāti Māori co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer said there should be discussion, but criticised Seymour and the Government for how it was managing the debate.
“It is not the Government that determines tino rangatiratanga,” she said.
“Te ao Māori and te iwi Māori are feeling a huge sense of betrayal that the Government, the prime minister, has thought it fit enough to trade off our rights and interests, our mana, for a three-year coalition agreement. There is a huge, deep sense of sadness,” Ngarewa-Packer said.
For Te Rawhitiroa Bosch, a photographer who has been with the hīkoi since it started at Te Rerenga Wairua/Cape Rēinga, unity - “kotahitanga” - had been achieved through the hīkoi.
“In every single little town, or just a house we’ve gone past, we’ve had whānau - Māori and Pākehā - out there waving their tino rangatiratanga flag,” Bosch said.
“We had this one Pākehā fulla, standing beside a knight’s armour holding a Māori flag - out by himself, just in a little town between Levin and Ōtaki.”
It was a sentiment shared by parents who Stuff spoke to at the hīkoi. They said they wanted to be part of an environment that celebrated being Māori, and hoped that message would challenge coalition actions which they saw as threatening to te ao Māori.
The details:
Hīkoi supporters travelling from marae to Waitangi Park, 6 - 9am.
Hīkoi from Waitangi Park, starting 9am, reaching Parliament at midday.
Speeches and protest at Parliament, midday to 2.30pm.
From 4pm, a kotahitanga concert at Waitangi Park.