New Zealand’s Treaty of Waitangi — which upholds Maori rights over their land — has long been seen as an important precedent in the global fight for recognition of First Nations people.
That’s now under threat from a draft law that seeks to redefine the principles of the 1840 agreement between hundreds of Maori chiefs and the British Crown. The divisive move drew tens of thousands of protestors outside Parliament in Wellington recently in one of the largest demonstrations in the nation’s history. Even 184 years later, the shadow of the British Empire still hangs over the former colony.
Although it’s unlikely to ever become law — Prime Minister Christopher Luxon’s National Party has said it won’t support the bill beyond the first reading which it already passed — it has brought an ugly side of Kiwi life to the surface: race politics. The leader’s party sits in a conservative-coalition, joined by the right-of-center ACT Party and the New Zealand Party. To get ACT’s support, Luxon agreed to allow the bill to be deliberated, acknowledging internal debate had caused "tension.”
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