Thousands in New Zealand protest against Government indigenous policies

The right-leaning coalition government has pledged to review affirmative action and remove references to the treaty with Maori people.

Thousands of protesters gathered in front of the New Zealand parliament on Tuesday, 5 December 2023 to express their opposition toward the new government’s policies against the indigenous people.

It was the Te Pati Maori party that called for nationwide demonstrations against the newly elected right-leaning government. Te Pati Maori who have six seats in parliament, swore oaths of allegiance to the new generation and the Treaty of Waitangi, a colonial-era founding document between the Maori and British people, before pledging allegiance to King Charles.

The treaty of Waitangi was an agreement first signed on 6 February 1840 by Captain William Hobson as consul for the British Crown and by Māori chiefs from the North Island of New Zealand. It was drafted with the intention of establishing a British Governor of New Zealand, recognising Māori ownership of their lands, forests and other possessions, and giving Māori the rights of British subjects. It was intended by the British Crown to ensure that when Lieutenant Governor Hobson subsequently made the declaration of British sovereignty over New Zealand in May 1840, the Māori people would not feel that their rights had been ignored.

The new National Party-led coalition, however, has pledged to review positive discrimination policies, change the names of some departments from the Maori language to English and strip legislation of references to the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi.

“This is not a protest, this is an activation,” Te Pati Maori co-leader Rawiri Waititi told protesters in Wellington.

“Make our voices heard, let our voices fly and be proud to be who we are today.”

New Zealand police said there had been disruption to traffic in a number of cities, including the largest city Auckland.

National Party leader Christopher Luxon, who is in coalition with the libertarian ACT New Zealand and populist New Zealand First, described the protesters’ criticism of his government as “pretty unfair”.

“The reality is we’ve been in government for a week,” he told reports. “We are going to get things done for Maori and non-Maori.”

David Seymour, the leader of ACT New Zealand, accused Te Pati Maori of being more interested in “divisive theatrics” than providing solutions for Indigenous people.

“New Zealanders elected a government that will treat people equally, regardless of their race,” Seymour said in a post on X.

This generation will define the direction and trajectory that humanity will be taking in terms of the indigenous and aboriginal peoples of the world. Since the dawn of colonialism, it was the European leaders who determined the destiny of those whom they decided to subjugate and once again it has come to the point where a new form of colonialism seems to come into existence and this is happening while indigenous and aboriginal peoples are still finding their feet recovering from the atrocities committed by the europeans over the course of centuries to their ancestors. 

This must not be allowed to happen again.