Maori protesters march on New Zealand capital over contentious bill
Thousands of people joined a march toward the New Zealand capital against a contentious bill that would reinterpret the country’s founding document.
Thousands of people joined a march toward New Zealand’s capital on Friday after a contentious bill that would reinterpret the country’s 184-year-old founding document passed its first hurdle in Parliament.
Several rallies against the Treaty Principles Bill are being staged in towns across the country as a nine-day march, or hikoi, moves to Wellington. It is expected to reach the national capital on Tuesday.
An estimated 10,000 people marched through Rotorua, about 280 miles north of Wellington, New Zealand police said in a statement. Protesters, some wearing traditional clothing, were greeted by hundreds waving the Maori flag and chanting.
On Thursday, Indigenous Maori leaders staged a haka, a Maori dance that was traditionally a challenge to opponents, at the first parliamentary hearing of the bill that seeks to redefine the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi.
Twenty-two-year-old lawmaker Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke ripped up a copy of the bill and led the haka in Parliament as other Maori members and some visitors in the public gallery joined her.
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