Explainer: Flashpoint over NZ's founding treaty, protests for Maori rights

A proposed law that would redefine New Zealand's founding treaty between the British Crown and Maori chiefs has triggered political turmoil and a march by thousands of people the length of the country to Parliament to protest it.

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 honour its promises to Indigenous people when the country was colonised -- and what those promises are.

Thousands of people were gathering in the capital, Wellington, on Tuesday morning for the final stretch of the weeklong protest -- a march through the city streets to Parliament. It follows a Maori tradition of hikoi, or walking, to bring attention to breaches of the 1840 Treaty of Waitangi.

 

Considered New Zealand's founding document, the treaty was signed between representatives of the British Crown and 500 Maori chiefs during colonisation. It laid out principles guiding the relationship between the Crown and Maori, in two versions -- one in English and the other in Maori.

It promised Maori the rights and privileges of British citizens but the English and Maori versions differed on what power the chiefs were ceding over their affairs, lands and autonomy.

Over decades, the Crown breached both versions. By the mid-20th century, Maori language and culture had dwindled -- Indigenous people were often barred from practising it -- tribal land was confiscated and Maori were disadvantaged in many metrics.

Prompted by a surging Maori protest movement, for the past 50 years the courts of New Zealand, lawmakers and the Waitangi Tribunal -- a permanent body set up to adjudicate treaty matters -- have navigated the differences in the treaty's versions and tried to redress breaches by constructing the meaning of the treaty's principles in their decisions.

Those principles are intended to be flexible but are commonly described as partnership with the Crown, protection of Maori interests and participation in decision-making.

While Maori remain disenfranchised in many ways, the weaving of treaty recognition through law and attempts at redress have changed the fabric of society since then. Maori language has experienced a renaissance, and everyday words are now commonplace -- even among non-Maori. Policies have been enacted to target disparities Maori commonly face.

Billions of dollars in settlements have been negotiated between the Crown and tribes for breaches of the treaty, particularly the widespread expropriation of Maori land and natural resources.

Some New Zealanders, however, are unhappy with redress. They have found a champion in lawmaker David Seymour, the leader of a minor libertarian political party which won less than 9 per cent of the vote in last year's election -- but scored outsized influence for its agenda as part of a governing agreement.

Seymour's proposed law would set specific definitions of the treaty's principles, and would apply them to all New Zealanders, not only to Maori. He says piecemeal construction of the treaty's meaning has left a vacuum and has given Maori special treatment.

His bill is widely opposed -- by left- and right-wing former prime ministers, 40 of the country's most senior lawyers, and thousands of Maori and non-Maori New Zealanders who are walking the length of the country in protest.

Seymour's bill is not expected to pass its final reading. It cleared a first vote on Thursday due to a political deal, but most of those who endorsed it are not expected to do so again.

Detractors say the bill threatens constitutional upheaval and would remove rights promised in the treaty that are now enshrined in law. Critics have also lambasted Seymour -- who is Maori -- for provoking backlash against Indigenous people.

Peaceful walking protests are a Maori tradition and have occurred before at crucial times during the national conversation about treaty rights.

Police in the country of five million people say they expect 30,000 to march across Wellington to Parliament on Tuesday. Crowds of up to 10,000 people have joined the march in cities en route to Wellington.

Many are marching to oppose Seymour's bill. But others are protesting a range of policies from the centre-right government on Maori affairs -- including an order, prompted by Seymour, that public agencies should no longer target policies to specifically redress Maori inequities.