'I wasn't meant to be the one leading the haka': Hana-Rāwhiti Maipi-Clarke

Tuesday, 19 November 2024

Opposition MPs and the public gallery stood to perform Ka Mate during the bill's first reading.

Te Pāti Māori MP Hana-Rāwhiti Maipi-Clarke says she wasn’t supposed to be leading the haka that has been viewed hundreds of millions of times around the world.

Maipi-Clarke, Opposition MPs and members of the public gallery performed a haka that brought Parliament to a halt last Thursday afternoon.

The haka briefly stopped MPs from voting on the Treaty Principles Bill, and concluded an extraordinary debate that saw tempers flare and two MPs reprimanded.

Maipi-Clarke told The Morning Shift podcast on Tuesday she was shocked to be handed a copy of the Treaty Principles Bill that had just been through its first reading in the House.

She ripped the bill and then led the haka.

Haka interrupts tghe vote on Treaty Principles Bill in Parliament last Thursday.

“I wasn’t even supposed to do that,” she said.

Te Pāti Māori co-leader Rawiri Waititi was supposed to have been the person who was handed the bill, ripped it and started the haka.

“But I knew I was going to get landed with something on that day and we’ve been prepping for about a year or so,” Maipi-Clarke told The Morning Shift.

She went on to say the size of the global reaction still hasn’t sunk in yet.