The New Zealand Parliament has voted to impose record suspensions on three lawmakers who did a Maori haka as a protest. The incident took place last November during a debate on a law on Indigenous rights.
New Zealand’s parliament on Thursday agreed to lengthy suspensions for three lawmakers who disrupted the reading of a controversial bill last year by performing a haka, a traditional Maori dance.
Two parliamentarians — Te Pati Maori co-leaders Debbie Ngarewa-Packer and Rawiri Waititi — were suspended for 21 days and one — Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke, from the same party — for seven days.
Before now, the longest suspension of a parliamentarian in New Zealand was three days.
I don’t know anything about New Zealand, or Maori culture, or history, or parliamentary procedure, or the Treaty Principles Bill, or the hearings that led to this decision, or the Haka, or sociology, or anthropology, or race relations, or indigenous issues, but I think…
why don’t they just have everyone do their hakas at the start, like in the rugby?
I know one person from New Zealand and she’s racist as fuck.
As someone who is half-Maori this just embarrasses me. I don’t have a problem with people celebrating their heritage and culture just do it in a more appropriate time and place. I wouldn’t have a problem with Irish people celebrating the Saint Patrick’s Day just as long as they don’t do it during a meeting at parliament.
Seems like as valid a way to protest vile revisionism and cowardly pandering to a foreign monarch.
No it isn’t. If this was on the street then it would be fine but this was a place of law and order where if you don’t like something you talk about it like an adult. It was totally unprofessional and performative.
this was a place of law and order
Clearly not, given what was being proposed. This was a legislative attempt to reneg on existing agreements between the Maori People and the British State. It was wildly illegal and provoked an appropriately outraged response.
What the legislators were protesting was the legislative equivalent of a mugging. The exact opposite of law and order. ACT New Zealand’s delegates are lucky they got out of there with a bit of dancing. In other countries, that kind of blatant criminality is a hanging offense.
Governments change agreements all the time. There is nothing illegal or unlawful about that. Whether you agree with it or not isn’t the point. Just because somebody does something you disagree with doesn’t give you the right to throw a fit about it.
Where i want congress to pick up the old tradition of thowimg raw chicken at each other
Unpopular opinion but interruption is interruption no matter the form. I do agree with the native protest here but I wouldn’t read into this ruling too much as any governing body would take this position. Weak governing rule set creates these loopholes like the American filibuster which imo is a bug not a feature.
Settler colonial government doing what settler colonial governments do.
fragile ass white men
Yeah, because that’s it…
It is still a British colony. They need to ditch the British king Charles as fast as possible.
‘If you strike me down, I shall become more powerful than you can possibly imagine.’
Tell us you’re racist without saying that you’re racist.
I dunno. This looks like signing a legal document that confirms they’re racist.
Shame. Wtf is wrong with your shitty shitty politics New Zealand?!!?! (Not an American, so I can call out anti-Indigenous politics)
Not an American, so I can call out anti-Indigenous politics
Any decent human being can and should call out anti-Indigenous politics, no matter their nationality.
Yes, but I just don’t see anything resembling reconciliation happening in the US vis-a-vis Indigenous peoples there. Like, in the US there doesn’t appear to be any reconciliation, not even symbolic gestures like land acknowledgements at events, or meaningful involvement of Indigenous people in settler politics. Are any elected officials in the US also Indigenous, like - at all?
Your logic doesn’t make sense to me, you’re saying people in the US cannot spot and criticize injustices happening in other places because those same injustices are happening in their home country? What about the people who do criticize them locally? Or the natives who are affected by them locally?
How is that relevant to who can and can’t discuss Indigenous rights though? Surely the more people in the world who care about Indigenous rights, the better.
To answer your question the US has about 5 out of 435 members, Canada has about 12 out of 343 members. New Zealand has about 33 out of 123 members which is obviously a much larger proportion of their total.
I will never understand why so many Canadians and Americans seem so unaware of one anothers’ Indigenous rights movements. You are neighbouring countries and some of your Indigenous nations are cross-border.
Where are you from bud?
From the profile, Canadian. Oh the irony wanting to talk about the anti-indigenous practices
What!? But that haka was awesome! How can you not enjoy that?
There are many enjoyable things that are not appropriate to do in parliament.
While I personally don’t see how performing haka is constructive to include in a debate about the bill, I think it’s unrelated to the discussion about what is or is not appropriate in the debating chamber.
not appropriate to do in parliament.
Seems like it functioned exactly as intended. Power to the People.
“Are our voices too loud for this house? Is that the reason why we are being silenced? Are our voices shaking the core foundation of this house? The house we had no voice in building …We will never be silenced and we will never be lost,” she said.
Fucking powerful.
Despite the signing of the treaty in 1840, there were many bloody conflicts between the colonial government and Maori tribes in ensuing years, resulting in the confiscation of large amounts of Maori land. Tensions remain to this day between New Zealand’s Indigenous people and the descendants of the Europeans who colonized their country.
Hey nice, journalism with a backbone!
That woman is amazing. What a response.
It feels so weird, and a little scary, to see people praising brave journalism when they’re basically just staying historical facts… It’s that not normal journalism? 😅
Normal journalism requires backbone.
journalism has been weak for years, basically just a bullhorn for whoever is being interviewed in that moment
Speaking truth when it could get your life ruined or sometimes even taken by the wicked and powerful will always be an act of bravery.
But I agree with you as well. It’s terrifying to be surprised when journalists speak the truth, and to see the suppression of truth become “normal” before our very eyes.
For anyone used to American news especially, no.
It’s normal for DW or any other global news service, since the added historical context is very important for their worldwide audience.
Hey nice, journalism with a backbone!
If only more news orgs in America could import that.
But then, it would probably be blocked by TACO tariffs.
Brits oppressing natives
A tale as old as tea
“The only reason God created the natives was for us to have a bit of sport, old chap”
Here is a metal version of her really impressive protest. How is this not awesome?
Momentarily I thought maybe that’s why my old boss thought I was mellow. But just remembered, the guy was Australian! Its a different musical system over there.
OMG that was powerful. I literally am crying right now. How awesome. And often awesome is overused. But, that was awesome.
Made my day.
Awesome!
As an enjoyer of metal, top song! Good on Hana-Rawhiti for protesting.
I can probably count a million little “traditions” that parliament follows that are based on Christianity and western colonial culture. But a haka is unacceptable
The ones that try the “it was a declaration of war!!” angle crack me tf up. What do they think buttfucking a treaty is?
I mean, a surprise pray-in also would have gone over poorly.
Doubt
New Zealand is over 50% atheist. “Pray ins” are not a thing there. It would be political suicide.
Its Parliament is Westminster system.
IIRC, people get in trouble for that in the US. This is New Zealand, where the standards of decorum are much higher and evangelical nonsense is much weaker.
I’d love to see that be the case
Lol, it appears protests happen during American proceedings so much that there’s no actual list. Pray-ins are an established tactic, though, and the penalties are given out on a pretty much production-line basis, so I doubt any exception is made. But, I can’t find a concrete example, sorry.
They’ve recently established in the Supreme Court that pray ins are kosher
Interesting! Do you have a link? My search is returning a bunch of stuff about praying for the supreme court or the supreme court on prayer in local council meeting openings.
And, in 2025, the Pākehā keep deciding what happens to indigenous land and indigenous resources, without letting Maori have any voice in it. Toitū te Tiriti!
You expected more? She knew it was going to happen, she did it specifically so it would happen and history won’t look fondly in their bullshit suspension.
