Here for the kids – a hīkoi for future generations

Tuesday, 19 November 2024

Crowds spilled out around Parliament as a hikoi protesting David Seymour's Treaty Principles Bill reached Wellington, with thousands of people making their voices heard loud and clear. Jenna Lynch reports.

Some were too young to vote, others too old to walk, but the kaupapa was the same: kotahitanga: unity.

Temahia, 13, came to the hīkoi with his future mokopuna in mind.

“When I’m an old man, I can tell my grandchildren that I fought for the country,” said the teen, whose full name is Temahia Hapuku Greening Jack Houkamau Ormond.

Temahia Hapuku Greening Jack Houkamau Ormond, 13, and Francis Whata both from Te Aute School in central Hawke's Bay. The school is the same one that educated renowned Māori politician Sir Apirana Ngata.

Asked what he wanted from the day, Temahia (Ngāti Kahungunu, Ngāti Rongomaiwahine) said: “Let the people be heard.”

And heard they were – though for only about five minutes by ACT leader David Seymour.

David Seymour at the hīkoi in the Parliament grounds, where he appeared very briefly near the Parliament entrance before heading back inside.

Seymour, the orchestrator of the contentious Treaty Principles Bill which sparked the hīkoi, appeared on the walled-off Parliament forecourt behind about six police officers very briefly before heading back indoors. He was met with chants of “Kill the Bill”.

He said police had advised him not to front the crowd for risk of inciting bad behaviour, but he thought it was “useful to be out there to listen”.

Tens of thousands of people joined the hīkoi in Wellington.

Parliament grounds “reached capacity” police said, after an estimated 42,000 people spilled onto the grass and into surrounding streets, after marching through central Wellington on Tuesday.

Hīkoi mō te Tīriti (March for the Treaty) was believed to be the biggest march in Wellington’s history, larger than the Foreshore and Seabed hīkoi of 2004, and much larger than the anti-mandate protest and occupation in 2022.

Anglican archbishop Justin Duckworth, left and Te Aute College chaplain Wiremu Paenga on the outskirts of Parliament on Tuesday.

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon did not address the protesters, nor did Speaker Gerry Brownlee, though Brownlee did herd press gallery reporters off the Beehive balcony, and the crowd was also told he turned off the Parliament wifi.

Anglican archbishop Justin Duckworth marched with the hīkoi from Waitangi Park to Parliament and said when any child was lost, the hīkoi would stop.

“They stopped for individual children and I thought, that’s what it’s about. We’re trying to build a future for our children and our children’s children.”

The hīkoi started out at Waitangi Park then headed to Parliament.

Ngāti Toa chief executive Helmut Modlik said the unification was the key to tino rangatiratanaga (self determination). “To those who would divide us whānau, it's too late, we're already one people,” Modlik said.

The hīkoi was about more than the bill, he said. “This hīkoi is the beginning of the end of unchecked rule and domination of our people by the kāwanatanga [governors].”

“Te Tīriti is not a problem. It is the antidote. It is the answer to what ails this land. Our tūpuna had a vision for something new and better in this beautiful place. Te Tīriti holds that promise for us, still.

Patched gang members from the Mongrel Mob, Black Power, Headhunters, Killer Beez and Highway 61 were among the crowd waiting for the hīkoi to arrive at Parliament.

“Respectful coexistence of kāwanatanga and rangatiratanga was agreed and is the only way forward if truth and justice are involved.”

Reverend Merekaraka Te Whitu, a priest in the Māori Anglican Church, said the Government was creating division.

“It doesn’t sit right within our hearts, within our minds.

Wellington woman Diana Ranger, 83, feels 'anathema' towards the Treaty Principles Bill.

“This is not the New Zealand that we want [children] to have. We want them to grow up with love, with peace, hope and joy, and I think that’s why I’m here ultimately, is to show them that we can do this.”

Asked if she had a message for Seymour, she said: “David Seymour is a good Māori man, he just doesn’t know it yet.”

A Harley-Davidson rider in full leathers, who called himself G-ride, had a message of gratitude for Seymour: “Thank you for doing this for us because it’s made us closer.”

Mongrel Mob, Killer Bees, Black Power and King Cobras were seen in the crowd, but there didn’t appear to be any clashes.

“Kōtahitanga, unity … we are all one,” G-ride said.

A couple of fireworks launched into the air drew groans and eye rolls from the crowd and waves of marijuana smoke wafted through at times, but police praised the hīkoi for remaining wholly peaceful.

Ambulances on site at both Parliament and Waitangi Park responded to about 20 medical-related incidents, with one person transported to hospital, police said.

Wellington woman Diana Ranger, 83, struggled to walk far so had perched herself on the steps of the Wellington cenotaph holding a sign that read “tātou tātou, honour it”.

Asked why she thought the cause was important, Ranger, who is Pākehā, said she felt “anathema” towards the Treaty Principles Bill. “We are not bringing in racism. Over my dead body.

“When the chips are down, Pākehā will not put up with Māori bashing.”