New Zealand MP Dance Video: You must remember the incident of opposition leader Rahul Gandhi tearing a copy of a bill of the then Manmohan Singh government during the press conference. A similar scene was seen in the Parliament of New Zealand on Friday. New Zealand’s youngest MP Hana-Raviti Kariariki Mapi-Clark was seen tearing a bill in Parliament in her own style. After this she came to the well of the House and also performed a traditional Maori dance. Now the story of her dance and tearing of the bill is going viral on social media.
The year-old MP was also seen doing Haka during his maiden speech in Parliament last year. Immediately after the MP’s action, the common people present in the gallery also joined him. Due to which Speaker Gerry Brownlee suspended the House for some time. Māori members danced the haka to disrupt the vote on the Indigenous Treaty Bill. This treaty was signed between the British and the indigenous Maori tribe 184 years ago.
The Treaty of Waitangi, first signed in 1840 between the British Crown and more than 500 Māori chiefs, outlines how both parties agreed to govern New Zealand. Even today, laws and policies are made on the basis of interpretation of that treaty.
There is currently a right-wing coalition government in New Zealand, which also includes the ACT New Zealand Party as a junior partner. Last week, ACT introduced a bill to enshrine the narrow interpretation of the Treaty of Waitangi into law. On Thursday, when all the MPs gathered to vote on this bill, Te Pati Māori MPs stood up and started dancing the traditional Haka. This is a traditional Maori dance made famous by the New Zealand rugby team.
This bill is being seen by Maori and their supporters as weakening the rights of the country’s tribals. The population of New Zealand is 5.3 million i.e. about 53 lakh. It is believed that 20 percent of its population is from Maori tribals.
Tags: International news, New Zealand, World news
FIRST PUBLISHED : November 15, 2024, 12:24 IST