‘Me tū, me haka!’: Te Pāti Māori MPs defend haka in Privileges Committee written submissions

Layla
Bailey-McDowell, Māori News Journalist
Pokere
Paewai, Māori issues reporter

Te
Pāti Māori MPs say their haka protest during the Treaty
Principles Bill debate was an expression of tikanga, not a
breach of parliamentary rules – and they are standing by
their actions.

All three MPs – Rawiri Waititi, Debbie
Ngarewa-Packer and Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke – submitted
individual written statements to the Privileges Committee
but refused to appear in person on Wednesday, citing a lack
of fairness and disregard for tikanga Māori.

They
intend to continue with their own public hearing on 7
May.

Privileges Committee chair Judith Collins said
the Committee
have considered the matter and will be meeting again in
the first sitting block to consider these actions
further.

In a document provided to RNZ, the MPs argued
that the haka was a form of constitutionally protected
political expression and a response to what they called “the
worst potential legislative breach of Te Tiriti in our
generation” – a reference to the ACT Party’s controversial
Treaty Principles Bill which was voted down on its second
reading, on 10 April.

Alongside their collective
submission, the three MPs each provided individual written
statements.

Te Pāti Māori co-leader Rawiri Waititi
said in his written submission that four of his tīpuna
signed te Tiriti at Te Kaha in June 1840,

“Koina taku
here ki te Tiriti o Waitangi nā aku tīpuna mātua i te pō
i waitohu i roto i te mana me te tapu o te iwi. Ki te
rāwekeweke tētahi i te mana me te tapu o te Tiriti, kai
rāwekeweke i te mana me te tapu o ngā mātua tīpuna i
waitohungia, i tā moko ngia i te Tiriti,” he
said.

“He pērā tā David Seymour me tana pāti a
ACT, he mea rāwekeweke i te Tiriti o Waitangi hai whakaiti
i te mana o te Māori ki Aotearoa nei.”

Waititi said
other MPs also performed the haka because the government was
tampering with te Tiriti and diminishing the mana of Māori
in Aotearoa.

“Koina te waahi tika mō te haka. Ki te
ngāueue te wairua ki roto i te tangata ki te puta i ngā
riri, i ngā tauoro, i ngā whakahē ki tētahi kaupapa
takahī mana, takahī tapu me tū, me haka!”

Waititi
said he would not apologise for performing the haka and that
he has long been using the haka in Parliament, including
during his maiden speech in 2020.

“E kore awahau a
whakapāha mō te haka, ko wahau te haka, ko te haka ko
wahau!”

He also put forward a motion for the House to
consider including a haka must be allowed in Parliament,
Māori customs must be embedded in the Standing Orders and
Speakers Rulings, and that all members of Parliament must be
educated in Te Tiriti o Waitangi before swearing
in.

“Me panoni te oati, me waihanga i tētahi mea hou
kia whakamana i te Tiriti o Waitangi.”

In her written
submission, co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer said standing in
Parliament as both a Taranaki wahine and MP during the
Treaty Principles Bill debate felt like being “under
siege”.

“Not just politically, but spiritually,
culturally, and generationally,” she said.

“It felt
like being surrounded by a sea of indifference – where our
cries for justice were debated like ideology, our Treaty
rights negotiated like currency, and our identity reduced to
an economic inconvenience.”

Ngarewa-Packer said
tikanga is law – it reflects how Māori live, deliberate,
and carry truth across generations.

“When government
allows bills that politicise the legitimacy of equity, it
denies the historical and ongoing causes of inequity to
Māori. It pretends that colonisation never happened. It
silences the very voices Te Tiriti was supposed to
protect.”

She said performing Ka Mate in the House was
a response to injustice, “a declaration of identity”, and an
expression of political debate.

“I spoke with my body,
my whakapapa and my wairua. It is how our tūpuna confronted
wrongs. It is how we honour our departed. It is how my kuia
resisted, united, and stood,” Ngarewa-Packer said.

“To
rise and haka in Parliament as a Taranaki wahine elected to
stand for Māori is not a breach of decorum – it is an act
of survival. It is tikanga. It is mana. It is truth. And the
truth is we should never have been forced into a position to
defend our treaty rights, that is the obligation on all
governments, whether they like it or
not.”

Hauraki-Waikato MP Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke
also stood by her actions and said while she accepted the
haka disrupted the voting process, she “will not apologise”
for performing haka.

She said her party met with
Speaker Gerry Brownlee following the incident to explain the
cultural significance of her actions.

“I explained to
him that there was nothing personal between him and me. I
understand the rules of this House, and I acknowledge them;
however, on this day, this House did not acknowledge the
laws of this land, Tikanga and Te Tiriti o
Waitangi.”

Maipi-Clarke said she was representing the
thousands of people who marched to Parliament in protest,
and the more than 300,000 who made submissions – 90 percent
of which opposed the bill.

She also questioned why she
was called to the committee at all, given she had already
faced sanctions.

“At this hui, my Co-Leader, Rawiri
asked, and I quote, ‘Will there be any double jeopardy in
this? Hana-Rawhiti has already done her time.’ The Speaker
then replied, ‘No, there won’t be.'”

She described the
Treaty Principles Bill as the culmination of a year of
“detrimental bills” that have “devastatingly affected”
Māori and said the debate about haka and tikanga missed the
bigger point.

“My first words in Parliament were a
maioha or traditional karanga. From then on, I haven’t
stopped articulating myself in my first language, Te Reo
Māori… enacting my traditional customs and
practices.”

“I will not justify my forms of expression
within this House. The bigger conversation is not the Bill
itself or haka but how this House picks and chooses when
they want to acknowledge Tikanga Māori, Te Reo Māori and
Te Tiriti o
Waitangi.”

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