New Zealand's founding treaty is at a flashpoint. Why are thousands protesting for Māori rights?
Police say tens of thousands of people have arrived at New Zealand's Parliament in protest of a proposed law that would redefine the country’s founding agreement between Indigenous Māori and the British Crown
WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — A proposed law that would redefine New Zealand’s founding treaty between the British Crown and Māori chiefs has triggered political turmoil and prompted tens of thousands of people to show up in protest at the country's Parliament on Tuesday.
The bill is never expected to become law. But it has become a flashpoint on race relations and a critical moment in the fraught 180-year-old conversation about how New Zealand should honor its promises to Indigenous people when the country was colonized -– and what those promises are.
A huge crowd gathered in the capital, Wellington, on Tuesday morning for the final stretch of a weeklong protest that has spanned the length of the country — a march through the city streets to Parliament. It follows a Māori tradition of hīkoi, or walking, to bring attention to breaches of the 1840 Treaty of Waitangi — and is likely to be the largest treaty rights demonstration in the history of modern New Zealand.
