Featured photo: Screengrab of Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke in Parliament taken from footage of @bbcchinese/X. Retrieved from downtoearth.org.in
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.