New Zealand Bans Māori Lawmakers Over ‘Intimidating’ Haka Dance

New Zealand’s Parliament voted Thursday to suspend three Māori lawmakers over a traditional dance of challenge they performed during a session last year to protest a bill that aimed to redefine the country’s founding treaty with the Māori, the BBC reported. 

Opposition politician Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke began to do the dance, known as haka, when asked if the Te Pāti Māori party favored the bill. She was suspended for seven days. Her party’s co-leaders, Rawiri Waititi and Debbie Ngarewa-Packer, were suspended for 21 days, the longest suspensions any New Zealand lawmaker has received. 

The Treaty Principles Bill that they opposed did not pass in the end but still sparked nationwide outrage as the Māori party said the law would reverse Indigenous rights, according to the Associated Press. More than 40,000 people marched outside parliament last November to protest the bill during the first reading. 

A parliamentary committee had suggested suspending the Māori lawmakers, not for the haka per se but for marching across their opponents while performing the traditional dance. Committee chair Judith Collins noted that the behavior could have come across as intimidating for their opponents.  

Tensions ran high on Thursday as the parliament debated penalties. Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Winston Peters was asked to apologize for calling Te Pāti Māori a “bunch of extremists” and saying that the country “has had enough of them.” 

Māori representatives, on the other hand, argued that they are being punished and silenced “for being Māori” and said they need to prioritize their people’s needs. They also said they are being sanctioned more harshly because they are of Indigenous background, as there have been times when other lawmakers approached opponents without repercussions. 

While New Zealand has long been praised for upholding Indigenous rights, relations with the Māori people have soured under the current conservative leadership. Among other measures, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon’s administration has come under scrutiny for cutting funding beneficial to Māori. 

Across most social and economic metrics, Māori remain at a disadvantage compared with non-Māori New Zealanders.