Tens of thousands flood New Zealand’s Parliament grounds in support of Māori rights

Tens of thousands of marchers gathered outside New Zealand's parliament on Tuesday opposing a law that would reshape the county’s founding treaty between Indigenous Māori and the British Crown.

The Hīkoi mō te Tiriti march began nine days ago in New Zealand’s far north and crossed the length of the North Island in one of the country’s biggest protests in recent decades.

Protesters say they reject the controversial Treaty Principles Bill that seeks to reinterpret the 184-year-old treaty between British colonizers and hundreds of Māori tribes.

Meanwhile, backers of the Bill say the treaty means Māori have rights that other New Zealanders don't have, and they want to scrutinise those rights in law rather than as a treaty.

The legislation is not expected to pass as most parties have committed to voting it down, but its introduction has triggered political upheaval and reignited a debate on Indigenous rights in the country under the most right-wing government in years.

The protest follows last week's halt of parliament after Indigenous politicians performed a haka in protest of the proposed law.

New Zealand's Prime Minister Christopher Luxon himself is opposed to the Bill, telling reporters last week: "You do not go negate, with a single stroke of a pen, 184 years of debate and discussion, with a Bill that I think is very simplistic."

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