Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke, the young New Zealand parliamentarian, has made worldwide news. She tore a copy of the Treaty Principles Bill and performed the famous ‘Ka Mate’ haka in Parliament on November 14, 2024, amid a discussion on the Bill.
The Bill seeks to reinterpret the seminal Treaty of Waitangi, which laid the foundation of New Zealand.
Maipi-Clarke was suspended for 24 hours for her actions in the House. However, the haka performed by her and others have generated interest about the Maori and what exactly is afoot in New Zealand at the moment.
The Maori are a Polynesian people and are the first peoples of their homeland, New Zealand, which they call ‘Aotearoa’ or ‘land of the long white cloud’.
As per the Lapita Hypothesis, Austronesian-speaking peoples from Southeast Asia colonised the Western Pacific through their sea voyages. They intermarried with Papuan peoples and became the ancestors of the modern-day Polynesians, one of whom are the Maori.
“The term Lapita refers to an ancient Pacific culture that archaeologists believe to be the common ancestor of the contemporary cultures of Polynesia, Micronesia, and some areas of Melanesia. The culture takes its name from the site of Lapita in New Caledonia, one of the first places in which its distinctive pottery was discovered. While archaeologists debate the precise region where Lapita culture itself developed, the ancestors of the Lapita people came originally from Southeast Asia,” according to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
Between 700 and 1595, the Polynesians colonised most of their traditional homeland of Polynesia or the islands of the Pacific Ocean. Polynesia is roughly defined as a ‘triangle’ whose three corners are Hawaii, New Zealand and Easter Island.
Armed with just their famous double-hulled, outrigger canoes (something similar to the Tamil catamarans) and with a knowledge of stellar and marine animal movements, the Polynesians colonised these islands, isles and atolls, farming, developing kitchen gardens, developing distinct art forms today famous globally like tattoos and the Haka dance and also fighting (and sometimes cannibalising) each other in brutal tribal warfare.
Modern-day Polynesians include the Native Hawaiians (Maoli), Samoans, Tahitians, Tongans and Marquesans, besides the Maori.
The Maori are believed to have reached the two islands of New Zealand by the 1300s although in their legends, their leader Kupe had already travelled from the original Polynesian homeland to Aotearoa somewhere in 925 CE.
“The date of first settlement is a matter of debate, but current understanding is that the first arrivals came from East Polynesia between 1250 and 1300 CE. It was not until 1642 that Europeans became aware the country existed,” notes a New Zealand government portal.
It adds that the early Maori settlers in New Zealand lived in small hunting bands. “Seals and the large, flightless moa bird were their main prey, until moa were hunted to extinction.”
“The Polynesians brought with them kūmara (sweet potatoes) and yams, which grew well in the warmer North Island. Extensive kūmara gardens supported relatively large settlements. But even in the north, birds, fish and shellfish were important in the Māori diet. In some northern areas, large populations put pressure on resources. The Polynesian dog and rat came with the early arrivals, but the domestic pigs and chickens of the islands did not, for reasons not fully understood,” the website adds.
Dutchman Abel Tasman first ‘discovered’ New Zealand in 1642, followed by Englishman James Cook in 1776.
Encounters between Europeans and the Maori ranged from peaceful to extremely violent, like the1809 Boyd Massacre when sailors were killed and cannibalised by local Maori in Whangaroa Harbour on the North Island.
In 1840, the British Crown signed the landmark Treaty of Waitangi with some, but not all Maori chieftains. The treaty was written in both English and Maori and this has led to a lot of confusion to this day.
That is due to the fact that the Maori language, till then, was an oral one and not written. Some words in the English version of the Treaty did not have Maori synonyms. These include the all-important word ‘sovereignty’.
The current Treaty Principles Bill has been brought in Parliament by ACT, a right-wing political party that is part of the ruling coalition.
As per the BBC, ACT leader David Seymour has said that the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi have never been defined properly and have thus enabled New Zealand courts “to develop principles that have been used to justify actions that are contrary to the principle of equal rights”.
Seymour states that this includes “ethnic quotas in public institutions” that go against the spirit of fairness for all New Zealanders, a BBC report notes.
However, critics of the bill say it will only create more division in the country and divide it further along racial lines.
Meanwhile, Maipi-Clarke danced the Ka Mate haka, composed by the Maori chieftain Te Rauparaha in 1820 after he luckily escaped his enemies during the intra-Maori Musket Wars between 1806 and 1845.
Contrary to popular perception, the haka are a group of ceremonial dances and may be performed on a number of occasions, not necessarily during wars or conflict.
“Traditionally, haka was performed as part of the rituals of encounter when two parties met or when a visitor was welcomed into the community,” Encyclopedia Britannica notes.