Maori MPs suspended for performing haka in parliament
On Thursday, the legislature voted to ban Rawiri Waititi and Debbie Ngarewa-Packer, the Maori Party co-leaders, for a record 21 days.
Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke, the Maori Party MP who started the dance, was handed a seven-day suspension.
Mr Waititi said the suspension was a reminder of the 'silencing' of his ancestors.
He said on Thursday: 'In my maiden speech, I talked about one of our (ancestors) who was hung in the gallows of Mt Eden Prison, wrongfully accused.
'The silencing of us today is a reminder of the silencing of our ancestors of the past, and it continues to happen. Now you've traded the noose for legislation. Well, we will not be silenced.'
The MPs did the haka in November as a protest after being asked if their party supported a Bill that sought to redefine New Zealand's founding treaty with the Maori people.
Although performed on many different occasions, haka are often used as a kind of ceremonial war dance or challenge to authority.
Winston Peters, New Zealand's foreign affairs minister, mocked Mr Waititi in the chamber on Thursday for his traditional full-face Maori tattoo.
Mr Peters, who is also Maori, said: 'The Maori Party are a bunch of extremists, and middle New Zealand and the Maori world has had enough of them.
'The one that's shouting down there, with the scribbles on his face... can't keep quiet for five seconds.'
Ms Maipi-Clarke, 22, sparked the controversy as parliament considered the highly contentious Treaty Principles Bill last November.
In footage widely shared around the world, she rose to her feet, ripped up the Bill and started belting out the strains of a protest haka.
She was joined by Mr Waititi and Ms Ngarewa-Packer, who strode on to the chamber floor chanting the Ka Mate haka, which is often performed by the country's All Blacks rugby team.
Credit: X/@Maori_Party
Ms Ngarewa-Packer was also accused of pointing her fingers in the shape of a gun at David Seymour, the leader of the Right-wing ACT Party, who had proposed the Bill.
The trio were hauled before the parliament's privileges committee but refused to take part in the hearing.
Supported by New Zealand's three governing coalition parties, the bans were voted on and accepted on Thursday.
Ms Maipi-Clarke vowed that Maori would not be silenced, saying: 'A member can swear at another member, a member of Cabinet can lay their hands on a staff member, a member can drive up the steps of parliament, a member can swear in parliament, and yet they weren't given five minutes of suspension.
'Yet when we stand up for the country's foundational document, we get punished with the most severe consequences.'
The Treaty Principles Bill sought to reinterpret New Zealand's founding document, signed between Maori chiefs and British representatives in 1840.
Many critics saw the Bill as an attempt to wind back the special rights given to the country's 900,000-strong Maori population. Its proponents argued that the current principles of the 1840 Bill have distorted its original intent, resulting in Maori now having more rights than non-Maori.
Parliament resoundingly voted down the Bill in April.
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