At least 42,000 people flooded Pōneke (Wellington), Aotearoa (New Zealand), on 19 November, as the final act of the hīkoi mō te Tiriti (protest march for the Treaty).
The hīkoi began in Cape Reinga, the northernmost point of the North Island, and travelled more than 1000 kilometres over nine days, ending at the New Zealand parliament. Tens of thousands joined the march as it moved through the North Island, and Iwi (Māori tribes) from across the country participated. Many Tangata Titiriti (non-Māori New Zealanders) joined and supported the action.
The hīkoi marks the latest in a long and proud history of Māori resistance, bringing the population together in opposition to the racist right-wing government currently in power and the Association of Consumers and Taxpayers (ACT) party’s Treaty Principles Bill.
A notable moment was when the hīkoi crossed the Auckland Harbour Bridge and visited Ihumātao. Ihumātao is Māori land that has been an ongoing site of occupation and protest as the state (under both Labour and Nationals) attempts to sell it to private developers in flagrant breach of Te Tiriti O Waitangi (The Treaty of Waitangi).
The hīkoi finished its march at parliament, where crowds filled the grounds to capacity to hear from hīkoi leaders and Te Pāti Māori MPs. A petition to stop the Treaty Principles Bill with more than 281,150 signatures (a larger number than the total vote for the ACT party in the last election) was also delivered to parliament.
Hana-Rāwhiti Maipi-Clarke (a Te Pāti Māori MP, and at 22 years old the youngest MP in parliament) gave an emotional recounting of the Haka she had performed in parliament the day before, describing how she received a 24-hour suspension as punishment but “the next day, showed up outside the steps with 100,000 of my people”. David Seymour, author of the Treaty Principles Bill and ACT leader, attempted to speak to the crowd, but was drowned out by chants of “Kill the bill” and retreated to sook on his social media.
The day finished with a celebration of the largest hīkoi in Aotearoa’s history at Waitangi Park. Those present described the mood as defiant and joyful, as Māori and non-Māori celebrated together. “What’s good for Māori is good for everyone, we come here in peace, we love everyone no matter who you are, where you come from” one protester told Radio New Zealand.
There were solidarity protests in London, New York, the Cook Islands and across Australia, with the hīkoi solidarity action in Melbourne drawing hundreds of people.
The bill
Tiriti O Waitangi enshrines Tino Rangatiratanga (self-determination or sovereignty) for Māori. However, there are two versions, one in English and one in Māori, and only the Māori one recognises Māori sovereignty. The Treaty Principles were established to resolve this contradiction as part of the 1975 Treaty of Waitangi Act. The principles are partnership, participation and the guarantee of rangatiratanga for Māori.
ACT’s Treaty Principles Bill, which would replace the current principles with “All New Zealanders are equal under the law, with the same rights and duties, The New Zealand Government has the right to govern New Zealand, The New Zealand Government will protect all New Zealanders’ authority over their land and other property”, is a racist attack on Māori sovereignty. Seymour argues the current principles give Māori “special privileges”, a recurring racist argument from the right. 
NZ First and the Nationals, the other two parties in the governing coalition, agreed to support the bill’s first reading in order to get ACT to join their coalition so they could cobble together a government. They have said they will not support the bill beyond its first reading, but their support up to now has emboldened the racist far right and provided it with significant air time. And the Nationals and NZ First have spent the last year attacking Māori rights in other ways, including destroying the Māori health authority and restricting the use of Te Reo Māori (Māori language) in government.
At the bill’s first parliamentary reading, instead of announcing Te Pāti Māori’s vote, Maipi-Clarke tore up the bill and began a haka. She was joined by the rest of Te Pāti Māori MPs, Māori Green MPs and members of the public in the gallery. Maipi-Clarke has become something of a hero for many on the left during her first year in parliament. She used her maiden speech to do a haka, and has repeatedly taken on right-wing politicians like Winston Peters (vice prime minister and leader of the NZ First Party).
Peters is a bastion of the conservative and reactionary right wing, and he regularly demeans and attacks Maipi-Clarke, although he is Māori himself. After he told her to “listen to her elders, hush up and learn some manners” and “stop showing off” in the parliamentary budget debate, Maipi-Clarke’s speech in response ended with her saying “moumou tō toto Māori” to Peters three times, which translates as “a waste of Māori blood”. The video of her response went viral and sparked a Tiktok trend involving young Māori women lip-syncing to the speech.
1960s radicalisation leads to new organised resistance
To understand what’s happening today, history is important. Māori were pushed into the capitalist workforce in the major cities to support the war effort in World War Two, while their land was increasingly stolen by the state. By 1975, Māori controlled only 2 million hectares of their land.
By 1966, 70 percent of Māori men worked in production, transport-equipment operation and labouring, centred in industrial zones. Māori were subject to racist discriminatory laws, forced into impoverished, over-policed city suburbs, denied opportunities and education, restricted to difficult and low-waged work, had their children removed and abused by the state, and were punished for practising their culture or speaking their language. In 1961, Māori life expectancy was 15 years less than Pākehā (white New Zealanders), and Māori were three times more likely to be unemployed. In 1960, only 25 percent of Māori could speak Te Reo (the Māori language), and by 1975, only 5 percent of children could. Resentment towards the system, especially among urban youth, was rising.
The radicalisation of the 1960s brought movements against the Vietnam War, for women’s rights, against Māori exclusion from the 1960 All Blacks rugby tour of South Africa and an increase in strikes. Many young Māori participated in these movements and emerged as political leaders, and an array of radical organisations sprung up in the cities.
The Māori Organisation on Human Rights (MOOHR) was founded in Wellington in 1967 by Tama Poata. Poata was a member of the New Zealand Communist Party and the Wellington Drivers Union and was labelled the country’s “leading Māori Communist” by ex-Prime Minister Robert Muldoon.
MOOHR was established when Poata organised mostly Māori and Pasifika drivers in his union to resist the Maori Affairs Amendment Act, a law designed to break up what was left of Māori communal land ownership. MOOHR campaigned for a cross-racial resistance to capitalism, which it saw as the cause of all oppression and inequality, and published a regular newsletter.
In 1970, Ngā Tamatoa (Young Warriors) was established at a young Māori leaders conference at Auckland university under the guidance of Ranginui Walker, a Māori academic. These Māori student leaders were inspired by the Black power movements in the US, and wanted an organised fight for Māori sovereignty, not a polite appeal. After the group was established, it was joined by Māori highschoolers and young workers in urban centres, like Tama Poata. Ngā Tamatoa was not explicitly anti-capitalist, and members had different political approaches, which would diverge more drastically as time went on. Although labelled “violent revolutionaries” by the mainstream press, only some members believed in armed uprising, and Ngā Tamatoa organised only peaceful resistance and community aid.
Ngā Tamatoa’s first action was to protest Waitangi Day celebrations, which it argued should be a day of mourning and reflection on the ongoing oppression of Māori people. In 1973, members of Ngā Tamatoa like Hana Te Hemara were arrested as they tried to burn the union jack and storm the stage on which Labour Prime Minister Norman Kirk was speaking. Kirk had recently changed the name to New Zealand Day in an attempt to obscure Aotearoa’s colonial history. Hana Te Hemara is Hana-Rāwhiti Maipi-Clarke’s great aunty and her namesake. In 1972, Ngā Tamatoa, the New Zealand Māori Students’ Association and the Māori Language Society delivered a petition to parliament with 30,000 signatures to teach Te Reo Māori in schools, presented by Hana Te Hemara. It was signed by a significant number of Pākehā, and reflected a shift in mainstream Pākehā consciousness against Māori oppression. Another Ngā Tamatoa member, Tame Iti, set up the Māori tent embassy that same year, inspired by the Aboriginal Embassy in Canberra.
The Polynesian Panthers were formed in Auckland in 1971 by Will ’Ilolahia and five other Pasifika youth, with an average age of 20. They were a revolutionary socialist organisation formed to fight racism, inspired by the Black Panther Party in the US.
Many Pasifika people were brought to Aotearoa in the 1950s to do the hardest, lowest paid work, and they faced systemic racism. In the 1970s they were blamed for the economic crisis by the media and ruling class, who depicted them as job-stealing criminals. They were subjected to violent “dawn raids” brought in by Norman Kirk in 1973, in which police would break into homes while people slept and forcibly take them to the police station without any belongings to be deported, for apparently overstaying their visas. The Polynesian Panthers provided community support, set up a pig patrol and organised activism and occupations of homes whose families were being evicted. They also carried out dawn raid of minister’s houses, drawing widespread publicity to the depravity of the dawn raids.
Miriama Rauhihi Ness joined the Polynesian Panthers in 1971. After moving to Auckland when she was 18, she worked in a sewing factory with many Pasifika women. She became a union representative and within six months had organised a strike over unfair conditions for Pasifika workers. After joining the Panthers, she became a key organiser and held the culture portfolio, organising workshops educating members on sexism and chauvinism.
1975 land rights hikoi: not one more acre of Māori land!
In 1975, Ngā Tamatoa, the Polynesian Panthers, Whina Cooper and other left-wing groups took on the loss of Māori land together. Whina Cooper was a revered activist who fought both women’s and Māori oppression through her activism for Māori land rights, beginning in 1915 when she was only 19 years old. As a single mother in 1949, she moved to Auckland and worked with the Māori women’s welfare league. Her involvement in both the fight for Māori land rights in rural areas and against urban Māori impoverishment, demonstrated to her the connection between the two issues.
In 1975, at age 79, she organised Te Ropu o te Matakite (the people with foresight), an organising group for a hīkoi for Māori land rights. The group was made up of Ngā Tamatoa members, Polynesian Panthers and other left-wing activists. Deciding on the slogan “Not one more acre of Māori land”, they encouraged diversity in politics and tactics, and united the activism of the old and new generations. They also sought to consolidate support for Māori land rights amongst other oppressed demographics, writing; “We see no difference between the aspirations of Māori people and the desire of workers in their struggles. We seek the support of workers and organisations, as the only viable bodies which have sympathy and understanding of the Māori people and their desires. The people who are oppressing the workers are the same who are exploiting the Māori today”.
To journey down the entire North Island on foot was a decision made by organisers to draw attention to their struggle, and to connect with different Iwi. As they travelled, they stayed at different Marae (meeting houses), and Whina Cooper would spend the nights agitating for more people to join the hīkoi and sign their petition to end the sale of Māori land and for Māori control over Māori land. She was often successful.
After the hīkoi concluded, 60 protesters occupied parliament’s lawn. The pressure from this resistance led to the Treaty of Waitangi Act, which established the Waitangi Tribunal, a court that would examine the theft of Māori land and breaches of the Treaty of Waitangi, and bring the Treaty into law.
The act also established Treaty Principles, made necessary by the discrepancy between the English and Māori treaty documents, which enshrined Māori sovereignty in law. But the tribunal created to uphold the principles was not given power to enforce its decisions.
Members of Ngā Tamatoa and the Polynesian Panthers continued to organise resistance throughout the 1970s. Although they had dissolved by the 1980s, many continued to organise resistance and activism, becoming key organisers of the anti-apartheid action against the 1981 South African Springbok tour.
Ngā Tamatoa members also went on to be key figures in the Māori cultural renaissance. They worked in unions, the arts and community to revitalise Māori culture and pride. The renaissance brought Māori language back from near extinction, and led to the establishment of Kohanga reo and Kurakaupapa (Māori language schools) in the late 1970s, and later Māori radio, television and film.
A policy of “bi-culturalism” was adopted by the Labour Government in 1984, which included Māori personnel, Māori models of organisation and Māori social practices and cultural symbolism in institutions of the state. In 1987, the Māori Language Act was passed, making Te Reo Māori an official language of Aotearoa. Hana-Rāwhiti Maipi-Clarke attended Kohanga reo, and is seen as representative of a Kohanga reo generation, who have been raised with pride in Māori culture.
Some Ngā Tamatoa members moved towards the right. Donna Awatere Huata, who wrote the influential book Māori Sovereignty, later started a consulting business that provided Māori cultural education for government departments like the treasury and the police. In 1996 she joined ACT, the right-wing libertarian party, and became an MP.
2004 foreshore and seabed hikoi
In 2004, the Labour government under Helen Clarke announced the seizure of the foreshore and seabed around Aotearoa by the state. The Foreshore and Seabed Act would annex millions of hectares of marine land from Māori, the largest grab since the 1800s. The act was in response to appeals made by Māori to have their customary right to the foreshore and seabed recognised.
The Court of Appeals ruled that the Māori Land Court should determine whether the foreshore and seabed could be customary land. The Court of Appeal ruling (which didn’t give anything to Māori) was jumped on by the right. National party MP Nick Smith started a petition to “save our beaches” from Māori who were trying to “steal them”. The Nationals spread racist rhetoric that Māori had special privileges, and at a protest Nick Smith attended, many Pākehā brought placards with racist slogans, such as “Whites have rights too”.
The National party elected Don Brash as leader, who had previously led ACT. He doubled down on the vicious racist attack against Māori, and jumped 17 percent in the polls. Instead of condemning the racism of the right wing and supporting Māori customary rights, Clark lurched to the right herself with the Foreshore and Seabed Act.
Māori decided to replicate the 1975 hīkoi to resist the Foreshore and Seabed Act and the rampant racism being pushed from the top of society. Some of the key organisers were Ngā Tamatoa veterans like Hone Harawira. As in 1975, the hīkoi travelled from the top of the North Island to parliament, stopping at Marae along the way to gather support, under the slogan “Māori Seabed, For Shore”! Young Māori played an active role in the hīikoi, and many had learnt about the 1975 land march in Kurakaupapa. As the growing hīkoi advanced on the capital, Clark hardened her attacks, infamously saying, “What it is is the same old faces—the Ken Mairs, the Harawira families, the Annette Sykes—the haters and wreckers”.
Around 15,000 people arrived at parliament as the hīkoi concluded, filling the grounds. The Labour Party held most of the seven Māori seats (seats that are reserved for Māori MPs, which only Māori can vote for) in parliament. These MPs were facing expulsion from the party if they did not vote for the act. Only one Labour Māori MP, Tariana Turia, voted against and despite the massive protest, the act passed.
Organisers of the hīkoi began to look to different avenues for change. Hone Harawira and Tariana Turia decided to create the Māori Party (today Te Pati Māori), as a way to combat the two major parties’ anti-Māori politics and fight for Māori rights in parliament. The party went on to help National form a government in 2008, and the Foreshore and Seabed Act was overturned and replaced by the Marine and Coastal Area Act. This decision to join a National Party government led to Hone Harawira resigning and a plummet in the party’s public support.
Prior to the 2017 election, Raiwiri Waititi and Debbie Ngawera-Packer were elected leaders (and still are today). Under their leadership the party has moved to the left. In the 2023 election they won six seats, claiming five from Labour, reflecting a political polarisation and collapse in support for the centre. They have used their platform in parliament to build campaigns and movements on the ground, like Hīkoi mō te Tiriti. 
Hīkoi mō te Tiriti is the largest hīkoi ever. It is the latest chapter in this radical tradition, buoyed by the two preceding Hīkoi and Aotearo’s rich history of resistance. It is an escalation of a protest movement that is mobilising huge numbers of Māori and non-Māori in unity against the right, and is gathering momentum. There is much to learn and take inspiration from in the current movement, and the radical tradition on which it builds.

Elliott Shaw

Hīkoi mō te Tiriti! Protect the treaty!

Thousands rallied across Aotearoa (New Zealand) in protests called by Te Pāti Māori (The Māori Party) as a new conservative government took office in December. Rally organisers have called the movement “Toitū te Tiriti”, referring to the need to uphold and enhance Te Tiriti o Waitangi (The Treaty of Waitangi) against the new government’s racist attacks. Organisers invited people of all races to participate, and there was a significant minority of non-Māori protesters. 
One protester, Quack Pirihi, told Re: news, an online media outlet: “If we don’t stand up now and protest there won’t be any other opportunities. This is what our future descendants will remember us for”. Another protester, Awhina Twomey, said she was marching “to stand up and be counted and to do something not just for Māori but for everybody”, because the government’s policies “aren’t going to be good for the majority, they’ll only be good for the minority”. 
Protests occurred in Te Tai Tokerau (The North Coast), Te Whanganui-a-Tara (Wellington), Wairarapa, Tāmaki Makaurau (Auckland), Hauraki-Waikato, Waiariki, and Te Tai Hauāuru (The West Coast). The protest in Whanganui briefly shut down the main highway into the town. 
The street marches coincided with a protest from Te Pāti Māori MPs inside parliament. Instead of just swearing allegiance to the King, all six Te Pāti Māori MP’s swore allegiance first to their mokopuna (grandchildren or descendants). Some MPs called King Charles “Hare Hare”, which translates to both Charlie and skin rash or scab. 
The protests were called in response to historic attacks on Māori rights by the new government coalition of right-wing racists. Christopher Luxon (prime minister and leader of the National Party), Winston Peters (vice prime minister and leader of New Zealand First), and David Seymour (vice prime minister and leader of Act) have announced a policy platform focused on attacking Māori, workers, the poor and the environment. 
Seymour has over a decade of experience attacking the rights of workers and <a href="https://en.tetaurawhiri.govt.nz/">Māori</a>. He describes himself as a libertarian, same as Argentina’s new far-right president Javier Millei. This brand of politics despises state support for workers and the poor. Seymour cut his teeth in Canada, at the Frontier Centre for Public Policy, and the Manning Centre, both conservative think tanks with a long history of racist campaigns denying the ongoing effects of colonisation and capitalism on Indigenous people. 
Seymour has been the MP for Epsom since 2014. Epson is the wealthiest electorate in the country, with a median household income of NZ$118,300. He became a household name during the pandemic, during which he opposed almost all the health measures implemented to stop the spread of the virus. 
Winston Peters is a more familiar face, having been elected to parliament fifteen times. He began his career as a National MP in 1975. After leaving the National Party, he established New Zealand First, a right-wing party. Peters’ support is concentrated among people over 60, and he is known for his racist, anti-immigration and socially conservative rhetoric. He voted against the decriminalisation of homosexuality in 1986 and the Marriage Amendment bill that legalised same-sex marriage in 2012.
Christopher Luxon is a boss-turned-politician, having previously been the CEO of Unilever Canada and of Air New Zealand. While in charge of Air New Zealand, the company’s business unit, Gas Turbines, supported Royal Saudi Navy vessels while the vessels were blocking humanitarian aid being sent to Yemen. 
The government is repealing fair pay laws (introduced by Labour to allow minimum pay and conditions across entire sectors), extending 90-day trial periods across more workplaces, introducing sanctions on welfare recipients who fail requirements, and cutting Core Crown spending (spending on social services like welfare, health and education) to fund tax cuts for the wealthy. They are restoring mortgage interest deductibility for rental properties, and attacking renters’ rights, with special attacks on renters in Kāinga Ora (public housing).
At the same time, more funding is being pumped into police and prisons, including creating a new “young serious offender category” and “young offender military academies”, essentially establishing juvenile detention. Māori are already the most incarcerated demographic in Aotearoa (more than 40 percent of incarcerated men and 60 percent of incarcerated women, despite making up only 18 percent of the total population), and these measures will only intensify the oppression of Māori by the state. 
The new government is also embarking on a culture war against Māori people and the gains they have made over the last century. A Treaty principles bill, which puts the content of Te Tiriti o Waitangi (The Treaty of Waitangi) up for debate and amendment, will be introduced to a select committee. Te Aka Whai Ora (The Māori Health Authority) is also being dismantled.
On top of this, Te Reo, the Māori language, will be effectively banned in government. All communication in public service departments, and all departments are to be named (unless related specifically to Māori) exclusively in English. 
These historic attacks on Māori rights are being pushed by Peters and Seymour, themselves both of Māori ancestry. They argue that Te Tiriti, and Māori co-governance, anti-democratically favours Māori and are too expensive to be continued. This conveniently distracts from and defers blame for the cost-of-living crisis onto Māori, who are struggling the most. The reality is Māori are still falling behind in almost every social measure. Nearly a quarter of Māori and Pasifika people are likely to experience persistent deprivation, higher than any other demographic in the country. Life expectancy for Māori men is 7.3 years lower than the national average, and is 6.9 years lower for Māori women. 
Te Tiriti o Waitangi is the founding document between British colonists and Māori, and established tino rangatiratanga, or self-determination, for Māori, among other rights. However, Te Tiriti was purposefully written in vague terms by the British, especially when translated into Te Reo. The document was always intended to subdue the militant Māori war against colonisation, and steal land under legal cover. Subsequent governments, both left and right, have continued to steal land and flagrantly break Te Tiriti o Waitangi. Ninety-five percent of land in Aotearoa has been alienated from Māori. Te Tiriti doesn’t go far enough in defending M<a href="https://en.tetaurawhiri.govt.nz/">ā</a>ori rights, hence the demand to uphold and enhance Te Tiriti. 
The richest 10 percent of Aotearoa’s population owns 25 percent of the country’s assets, while the poorest 50 percent own just 2 percent according to Max Rashbrooke, author of Inequality: A New Zealand Crisis. It is the rich who are anti-democratically favoured, and the policy program of the new government will only exaggerate this.
The coalition only just cobbled together a majority government, with the National Party winning just 38 percent of the vote, Act under 9 percent, and New Zealand First 6 percent. At the same time, support for the Greens and Te Pāti Māori grew. A polarisation is taking place, and support for the centre is collapsing. 
Among those moving to the left electorally, the new government is causing outrage. Māori have a long history of powerful movements winning concessions. From repeated land marches, to protesting the whites-only All Blacks rugby tour of South Africa. Māori are often a defiant, militant minority. But Māori cannot defeat this government alone. The protests that have already brought together Māori and non-Māori people against the government are a hopeful sign for the future.

Toitū te Tiriti! Uphold the Treaty!

Plasterboard workers have walked out of the CSR Gyprock Yarraville factory in Melbourne’s western suburbs for the first time in decades and have set up a CFMEU strike camp. 
Management is offering a measly 2.5 percent per year pay rise, while workers are demanding 4 percent per year. Given that CSR pays its workers $4.40 per hour less than its competitors, a 4 percent increase in the context of 3 percent inflation is a modest demand.
During the previous contract negotiations, workers accepted a substandard offer in the context of the economic uncertainties of the pandemic. They stopped work for two hours to put their demands, but that was all. Now, most think that they were divided badly and didn’t know what’s happening in other areas. 
CSR’s profits have since increased by 30 percent in just half a year, adding up to $86.6 million lining the pockets of wealthy shareholders and executives. Two senior executives have awarded themselves $1.2 million in bonuses, bringing their total annual remuneration to $3,747,826.
After working through the pandemic, agreeing to lose rostered days off and putting their health on the line while managers worked from home, workers were enraged that management refused to negotiate the overdue and modest wage increase.
But this time, they started preparing for the negotiations earlier. In several meetings and discussions between workers in different sections and shifts, they decided to ban overtime and have two work stoppages. Management threatened not to pay them for a whole day if they stopped for two hours. So, on 25 November, they went on strike.
“I have been here 30-plus years”, one worker told Red Flag. “At the beginning, wages and conditions were best in the area. That time everyone was in the union. Now the money we are making is not enough to live in the area.”
Some workers have been at the factory for decades, while “newbies” have been employed for four to five years. So it’s a long-term workforce. But the company structure has created divisions. For example, forklift drivers in warehouse areas earn roughly $10 less than their mates in production.
“I have been here only a few years, and it’s my first strike”, another worker said. “It’s not easy to pay bills without an income, but I think it’s very important to stick together this time so we can go inside as a united team. This is not only about wages; we deserve respect here. Managers don’t give a shit about us.”
When management offered the workers a deal that would suit only half the workplace, workers rejected it on the basis of solidarity and say that they will stay out until they are all given the desperately needed and more than deserved pay increase. 
Out of a workforce of around 60 people, only three are scabbing. No plasterboard can be produced because all skilled full-time workers are striking. They are the only ones able to operate the complex machinery. Boilers have been turned off and will take days to restart once the dispute is settled. 
This has left Bunnings, one of CSR’s main customers, with no plasterboard to fill their orders. As this CSR site provides plasterboard not just for Bunnings, but most construction in Melbourne, the halt in production of such an important product is likely to affect this multi-billion-dollar industry. 
Considering workers have not taken strike action at CSR in so long, they were buoyed by the support of the CFMEU. Visiting delegations of shop stewards have made them feel as though they aren’t alone in this fight. Union pride also sends a signal to CSR management that the strikers won’t easily be beaten.
The picket line is at 277 Whitehall St, Yarraville. Visitors are most welcome. Support the <a href="https://csr-gyprock-strike-fund.raisely.com/">CSR CFMEU strike fund</a>.

Hīkoi mō te Tiriti! Protect the treaty!

Toitū te Tiriti! Uphold the Treaty!

‘Managers don’t give a shit about us’: plasterboard workers strike in Melbourne

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