Three Maori legislators in New Zealand received record suspensions of up to three weeks on Thursday by a protest haka who acted in Parliament last year against a contentious bill.
Legislators caught global attention in November when they performed the Haka, a ceremonial song challenge dance that is an appreciated cultural symbol of New Zealand. They protested legislation that would have reinterpreted the 184 -year -old founding document, a treaty that was signed between the colonial British rulers and the indigenous Maori.
A parliamentary committee found the three legislators in contempt of Parliament last month and recommended that they be suspended for up to three weeks “for acting in a way that could have the effect of intimidating a chamber member.”
Debbie Ngarewa-Paccker and Rawiri Waititi, co-leader of Te Pāti Maori, the Maori party, which has six of the 123 seats in Parliament, were suspended for three weeks each.
Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke, who at 22 is the youngest legislator in New Zealand, was suspended for a week on the recommendation of the Committee, who said in his report that he had demonstrated “some level of contrition” in his written statement.
The vote was 68-55 against Maipi-Clarke, 68-54 against Ngarewa-Packer and 68-53 against Waititi, all of which were immediately suspended.
It is rare that New Zealand legislators receive such suspensions, that they are not paid, and the longest that someone had previously been suspended was three days.
The opposition Labor Party and the Green Party criticized the suspensions as disproportionate, and the Labor Party proposed censorship.
The three legislators made the protest haka in November during the reading of a bill that would have redefined the Waithi treaty. Signed in 1840 between the British crown and the Maori bosses, the treaty established British governance and structures to protect Maori rights and continues to influence politics today.
The legislation was presented by the small law of the New Zealand Libertarian Party, which said that the treaty had been misunderstood to give special treatment to Maori people.
Critics of the bill, which was defeated in April, said it would undo decades of progress for the Maori, who represent about 20% of the 5 million people in New Zealand and are worse than the rest of the population in health, education and the criminal justice system.
One of the Maori legislators, Maipi-Clarke, directed the Haka destroying a copy of the bill, united by other Maori members and some visitors in the public gallery. The protest video went viral and gathered hundreds of millions of visits on social networks.
Some legislators opposed the way their Maori colleagues advanced towards them through the floor.
“This was a very serious incident, as I had never seen in my 23 years in the debate camera,” said Judith Collins, of the National Center-Right Party, president of the parliamentary committee that issued the report.
He added that legislators had made Haka without permission and that the interruption had suspended legislative procedures for 30 minutes.
The three Maori legislators refused to appear before the committee during their investigation, citing the lack of respect for their cultural traditions. His party said that the way he was carried out was “very unfair” and that “this was not about the process, this became personal.”
The committee said that legislators were being sanctioned not to perform the haka, but for “the time and the way it was carried out.” He said that the severity of the sanctions intended to “leave members without a doubt that the behavior discussed is not acceptable.”
The vote had originally been scheduled for last month, but was postponed so that the three Maori legislators could participate in the debate on the federal budget.
Performing Haka in Parliament is not uncommon, and it is generally seen when Maori members celebrate the approval of a particular bill. The dance is known abroad for being performed in the matches of the New Zealand rugby teams, and its variations are also made at funerals and formal welcome.
“All in Parliament would have clearly understood that this was a peaceful act of protest conducted in a way that aligns with the Maori tradition,” said Julian Rawiri Kusabs, a Maori historian and researcher at the University of Melbourne in Australia.
Kusabs said the suspension was a setback in decades of reconciliation efforts between the New Zealand government and the Maori communities, whose members have had to navigate “a highly complex and frequently painful relationship” even to achieve representation in Parliament.
The suspension, he said, reinforces the perception of long data that “Maori culture is not equally respected within the formal institutions of New Zealand government.”
