Skip to player
Skip to main content
Skip to footer
Search
Connect
Watch fullscreen
Like
Comments
Bookmark
Share
Add to Playlist
Report
Thousands protest across NZ amid potential treaty changes
ABC NEWS (Australia)
Follow
2/6/2024
Today is New Zealand's national day, Waitangi Day, which marks the signing of the treaty between Māori Chiefs and The Crown in 1840.
Category
📺
TV
Transcript
Display full video transcript
00:00
This is Waitangi Day and over the last five days or so, there have been tens of thousands
00:06
of people arrive here at Waitangi.
00:09
Obviously, the host people who are Ngapuhi have invited the motu or the whole country
00:15
to come.
00:16
So all the political parties come, the Maori King comes, a lot of the significant hahi
00:22
or religious movements like Ratana come, and they come to reaffirm their connection with
00:28
this place and to Te Tiriti o Waitangi, the Treaty of Waitangi, and to celebrate what
00:33
it means to us as Maori, and then to debate and talk about what it means to the country,
00:39
particularly in this time with a new government and some new ideas about how we take that
00:43
forward.
00:44
So for the audience here in Australia, Tākuta, can you explain what the Waitangi Treaty is
00:49
and its importance to you?
00:52
Yeah, well the Treaty of Waitangi is very important to New Zealand's history.
01:00
It's one of the founding documents of the country.
01:02
There is a forerunner to the Treaty, which is called the Declaration of Independence,
01:08
He Whakaputanga o te Rangatiratanga o New Tirini, and that was signed in 1835, where
01:13
Māori declared themselves an independent country.
01:16
And then in 1840, the Treaty was signed, and one of its base tenets was a request from
01:22
the Queen to establish legal immigration for her subjects.
01:27
And on that basis, the Treaty was created.
01:30
It subsequently created a nationhood between Māori, who are the tangata whenua, or the
01:35
indigenous people of New Zealand, and the incoming people, who are commonly known as
01:40
Pākehā, and more later as Tauiwi, in a reference to the many different peoples that would come
01:46
to Aotearoa.
01:47
But they all enter under the banner of the Queen, of the government, and are able to
01:52
stay here in Aotearoa via the citizenship that they receive from that pathway.
01:57
So that's sort of what the Treaty is.
02:01
And for a long time now, successive governments of New Zealand have not done a very good job
02:06
at upholding their Treaty.
02:08
And unfortunately, you know, over the past 20, 30 years, there's been a lot of good progress
02:13
made, and the current coalition government are sort of seeking a return to the 1980s
02:19
or 70s.
02:21
And it's obviously not going down very well.
02:23
And so Māoritim has arrived here at Waitangi to demonstrate that message, and then to make
02:29
sure that the pathway forward from here on out is a more collegial one, and one that's
02:34
respectful of both signatories, both parties to Te Tiriti o Waitangi.
02:39
So the new government, as you say, is proposing changes.
02:42
They justify those proposed changes by saying it will deliver better public services based
02:49
on people's needs, not their ethnicity.
02:52
I think they're proposing a referendum as well.
02:55
What's your plan to stop those changes being put in place?
02:59
What's your plan for opposition?
03:02
Well, the Māori Party plan is to represent the aspirations of the Māori people.
03:09
We don't consider ourselves an opposition party.
03:11
We consider ourselves a mana motu hake party, which is an independence party.
03:16
And we're premised on the independence of the Māori people.
03:19
And over the last month, probably, or two months maybe, the Māori people have shown
03:23
out in droves in their tens of thousands at different hui, different national gatherings
03:28
around the country, and have really put forward a strong message that they are not interested
03:33
in what the new government is suggesting.
03:35
Now the new government is trying to rewrite some key tenets of Te Tiriti o Waitangi, and
03:40
the main one really is they want to change the makeup of the two constitutional partners.
03:46
Obviously, they were Tangata Whenua and the Crown, and now a small party called the ACT
03:52
Party wants to change those two groups to define themselves as New Zealanders, all New
03:58
Zealanders, i.e. chucking Māori in with all of the rest of the people in Aotearoa, and
04:03
the Crown.
04:04
So that's pretty much a ground zero for what the proposal is, and tiwi Māori are obviously
04:10
not interested in doing that.
04:12
If you come down to a level where we're dealing with the constitutional law and the makeup
04:15
of constitutions in the country, they're not generally things that the public have a great
04:20
say on, and in this case the Treaty was signed.
04:23
The fact that it's a Treaty demonstrates that it was an agreement between two sovereign
04:28
peoples, i.e. Māori and the Crown, and now diluting that down to encompass all people
04:34
in New Zealand and the Crown is not a step that Māoridom will tolerate.
04:38
Bye.
04:39
[BLANK_AUDIO]
Recommended
1:55
|
Up next
NZ authorities monitoring celebrations on national day
ABC NEWS (Australia)
2/6/2024
1:39
Thousands protest proposed changes to interpretation of New Zealand treaty
ABC NEWS (Australia)
11/19/2024
1:00
Watch: Maori mps stage haka protest over treaty bill
euronews (in English)
11/15/2024
2:48
Thousands protesting New Zealand's Indigenous bill set to march to parliament
The Manila Times
11/20/2024
1:09
Maori Haka halts New Zealand Parliament amid clash over treaty reinterpretation
Marca
11/14/2024
3:19
New Zealand Axes Controversial Treaty Bill Aimed at Indigenous Rights
TaiwanPlus News
4/15/2025
1:25
Indigenous rallies to highlight rolling back of treaties and truth telling
ABC NEWS (Australia)
1/24/2025
1:48
Moment New Zealand Maori MPs disrupt parliament with haka in protest against treaty bill
The Independent
11/14/2024
0:48
Philippines, New Zealand sign visiting forces deal
rapplerdotcom
4/30/2025
2:02
New public holiday in Victoria proposed as part of treaty negotiation
ABC NEWS (Australia)
10/23/2024
3:26
Jacinda Ardern Says Revived TPP Represents 'Significant Victories for New Zealand'
StoryfulNews
11/14/2017
1:54
Landmark treaty negotiations between First Nations’ people and the Victorian government begin
ABC NEWS (Australia)
11/21/2024
1:17
ANZAC Day services across regional Australia
Australian Community Media
4/24/2024
0:50
Australians demand justice for indigenous people on national day
euronews (in English)
1/26/2021
0:59
Maori song rings out as NZ parliament rejects treaty
AlArabiya English
4/10/2025
1:57
Tasmanian Aboriginal people call for action treaty laws
ABC NEWS (Australia)
7/30/2024
2:26
How the NT celebrated Australia Day in 2025
ABC NEWS (Australia)
1/26/2025
1:34
Northern Territory government revives plans for a treaty with Aboriginal people
ABC NEWS (Australia)
1/19/2024
1:00
Historic Maori rights demonstration in New Zealand draws 35,000 people
euronews (in English)
11/19/2024
0:35
New Zealand Parliament suspends three lawmakers for performing protest haka
euronews (in English)
6/10/2025
2:02
Queensland's LNP leader withdraws support for First Nations treaty
ABC NEWS (Australia)
10/20/2023
1:02
Chapel Street crime crackdown brings bag searches, sniffer dogs and arrests
Australian Community Media
yesterday
12:08
Flooding, storms and intense wind: dangerous weather forecast for NSW coast
Australian Community Media
yesterday
2:16
Canberra news and sport week ending June 29th, 2025.
The Canberra Times
yesterday
0:35
Filipino pug Jeo Santisima Back in action in Japan
PTVPhilippines
yesterday