Other New Zealanders think the march has gone too far.
“They (Maori) seem to want more and more,” said Barbara Lecomte, who lives in a coastal suburb north of Wellington. “We now have an international mix of different nationalities. We are all New Zealanders. I believe we should work together and have equal rights.”
But equality is still a long way off, according to Te Party Māori (Māori Party) co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer.
“We cannot live equally if there is even one Indigenous person living ‘less than,’” she argued. What the coalition government is doing is “an absolute attempt to divide a progressive country and is truly embarrassing.”
New Zealand’s parliament was temporarily suspended last week after lawmakers opposing the bill performed a haka (traditional dance). The video of the incident went viral.
“There has been something truly remarkable in Aotearoa’s highest body, Parliament. I think that disappointment and sadness is what Māori will have to endure in 2024 when we look at politics and the extremism of Trump.” Debbie Ngarewa-Packer said. “It’s humiliating for the government because we (New Zealanders) are generally seen as punching above our weight in all the great things in life.”
On Monday, protest organizers taught participants the words and movements of the Te Tiriti o Waitangi (Treaty of Waitangi)-themed rally haka. Before the rally, audience members eagerly followed the lyrics written on large white sheets, trying to absorb as many words as possible.
“This is no ordinary hikoi,” said grandmother Rose Raharuhi Spicer. “It’s everyone’s hikoi,” said grandmother Rose Raharuhi Spicer, explaining that she had called on non-Maori Pacific Islanders and more people in New Zealand to support them.
This was the fourth Hikoi in which Rose appeared. She is from Tehapua, New Zealand’s northernmost settlement, just above Auckland. This is the same village where Hikoi, the most famous protest over land rights in 1975, began.
This time we brought our children and grandchildren.
“This is a legacy for our grandchildren,” she said. “It’s not just one person or one party. And to change that would be wrong.”
