On the eve of the arrival of te Hīkoi mō te Tiriti at Pāremata, ACT leader David Seymour has criticised the globally viral haka performed by Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke, fellow Te Pāti Māori MPs, and the public gallery last Thursday during the first reading of the Treaty Principles Bill.
The haka has amassed hundreds of millions of views since Thursday.
Speaking to reporters this afternoon, Seymour claimed the haka “was designed to get in other people’s faces” but Te Pāti Māori co-leader Rawiri Waititi said the haka was about challenge.
“We love it when the All Blacks do it but what about when the ‘blackies’ do it in a place where it challenges the violence, the continued violence of a House that has done that over hundreds of years and to push back.
“Everyone should be proud to see [the haka] in its true context,” he said.
Speaker Gerry Brownlee punished Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke with a 24-hour suspension from the house following a vote of the coalition government MPs.
Seymour’s criticism comes less than 24 hours before the hīkoi marches to Pāremata, with the Māori Queen set to join the final leg, with up to an estimated 30,000 other marchers expected.
Additional reporting by RNZ.
