#Rawhiti

1 year ago. @hana_rawhiti & @maori_party Haka in Parliament. Iconic ❤️🌀 #haka #maori #māori #maoriculture #aotearoa #newzealand #haka

New Zealand’s Parliament was temporarily suspended on Thursday as Māori lawmakers performed a haka, a traditional group dance, demonstrating their community’s anger and fear over a bill that aims to reinterpret the country’s founding treaty with its Indigenous people. During a first reading of the proposal, when the speaker asked Māori lawmaker Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke how her party would vote on the Principles of the Treaty of Waitangi Bill, she stood up, tore up what appeared to be her copy of the legislation, and started performing a haka. She was joined in by other opposition members on the floor, as well as people in the gallery overlooking the chamber. The Treaty of Waitangi, signed by Māori chiefs and the British Crown in 1840, is considered New Zealand’s founding document. It forms the basis of the laws and policies aimed at redressing historical wrongs against the Māori by colonizers. Tap the link in bio for more.

One year ago today, on 14 November 2024, Aotearoa witnessed one of the most striking moments of political protest inside Parliament. Hana-Rāwhiti Maipi-Clarke — then just 22 and the youngest MP from Te Pāti Māori — stood in the debating chamber during the first reading of a Treaty-related bill, tore the document in half, and launched into a haka. The chamber erupted. Members of the public gallery joined in the chanting, opposition MPs rose to their feet, and the Speaker was forced to suspend proceedings. What could have been a routine legislative vote instantly became a defining image of Māori resistance in the heart of the nation’s democracy. Just shy of one year later, on 13 November 2025, the story came full circle. The Regulatory Standards Bill, a key part of the coalition agreement between ACT, National and New Zealand First, passed its third and final reading in Parliament. Despite more than 98 percent of public submissions opposing it, the bill passed with government support. Read the full story link in bio 🔗

When entering the debating chambers to thank all of our people mobilising today, and giving comments to this years budget. Winston Peters started heckling and bullying me in his budget speech, as I was sitting there minding my own business and members then heckled back to defend me. I have watched this man attack waahine Maaori with his words trying to belittle them in this debating chambers so many times, so I gave it back and told him to go speak to my own elders before talking at me. ❌ On a positive note, we have no words right now to express how proud & thankful we are of EVERYONE showing up in full force, from our kura, to Kaimahi, to hiikois and carkois. #Magic ✨❤️🖤 And e noho koro lol.

The youngest member of New Zealand’s parliament, Māori Party MP Hana-Rawhiti Kareariki Maipi-Clarke, started a haka to protest the first vote on a proposed law that would re-interpret New Zealand's founding legal document. The Treaty Principles Bill was introduced by the leader of the libertarian ACT party, David Seymour, and would redefine how New Zealand interprets the Treaty of Waitangi (Te Tiriti o Waitangi), which was signed in 1840 between the British Crown and more than 500 Māori chiefs. Under the proposed changes, the New Zealand government would have "full power to govern" and make laws "in the best interests of everyone", while also promising to "respect and protect" the rights of Māori under the treaty "at the time they signed it". Maipi-Clarke was suspended from parliament and her behaviour was called disrespectful and grossly disorderly by the speaker. Video: @nzstuff and New Zealand Parliament TV

Toituu te Whenua, Toituu Lahaina. ✊🏽 He waiata moo te whenua oo Maui me ngaa Kanaka whenua ki te Kula ‘o Nāwahīokalani’ōpu’u ⛰️

If the indigenous Māori are upset about it, you know it can’t be in their best interest. THIS energy all day @hana_rawhiti! #solidarity ✊🏾

They fight for their rights, they fight for their land, they fight in their own language, they fight using their tradition. If they must fight, fight to never again 🙏🏻🔥 . Huge respect to @hana_rawhiti 🫡 . Want to charge up with daily women’s empowerment goodies? 🔋✅🔥 >> Follow @femalepowercharge . Credit: @guardian @theprintindia #womenpoliticians #womeninpolitics #standupforyourrights #maoriculture #haka #indegenousrightsarehumanrights #womensupportingwomen #womenempowerment #femalepowercharge

Te Kura Reo ki Whirinaki @kurareokiwhirinaki E mokemoke ana hau ki ōku whanaunga o Te Tai Tokerau.. ka mātakitaki i tēnei kiriata, ka hoki ngā mahara, ka koa te ngākau! Tēnā rā koutou katoa! #TeKuraReoKiWhirinaki #TeTaiTokerau #Waiata #Māori #RawhitiroaPhotography #māoriphotographer #kaiwhakaahua #māori #Aotearoa

@hana_rawhiti ate & left no crumbs 💅🏼

Māori lawmakers disrupted New Zealand’s parliament and performed a haka –a traditional Māori war dance and chant –to protest a controversial bill that would change the Treaty of Waitangi. The treaty, signed in 1840, is a foundational document between the British Crown and more than 500 Māori leaders, promising Indigenous Māori people rights over their land and culture in return for British governance. The new bill, proposed by the ACT New Zealand party, a junior partner in the country’s center-right coalition government, suggests that these rights should extend to all New Zealanders. Many Māori, who represent about 20% of the country’s population, fear this would weaken their historic rights. On Thursday, Nov. 14, just as MPs were about to vote on the bill, the country’s youngest MP, 22-year-old Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke, from the Te Pāti Māori party, began a haka in protest. She tore up a copy of the bill as she began to chant the haka, drawing support from her party members, opposition lawmakers and spectators in the public gallery, who all joined in. Maipi-Clarke was later suspended for leading the haka and disrupting the parliament, according to Radio New Zealand. ACT party leader David Seymour, who introduced the bill, argued that people opposing the bill were trying to create fear and division, according to Reuters. “My mission is to empower every person,” he said. The bill has faced widespread criticism from the general public, with hundreds of people participating in an ongoing nine day protest march from New Zealand’s north to the capital, Wellington. They are expected to arrive on Tuesday Nov. 19, when tens of thousands of people are expected to join a major rally. Although the bill passed its first reading, it’s unlikely to become law. Key coalition partners, including Prime Minister Christopher Luxon’s National Party and New Zealand First, have indicated they won’t support it further, despite backing it initially under the coalition agreement. Since taking power in November 2023, the ruling right-wing government has begun rolling back Indigenous rights. (📹: NZ Parliament TV, X, 📝: @ish.jain)

Te Pati Māori MP Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke has been named in the BBC’s list of the top 100 most inspiring and influential women of 2024. Started in 2013, the BBC 100 Women list is compiled every year to celebrate women who have achieved great things in public life over the previous 12 months. In October 2023, the 22-year-old, Maipi-Clarke became the youngest Māori woman ever elected to New Zealand’s Parliament. At 21 years of age, she was also the youngest member of Parliament since 1853.