an MP performs a Haka for her swearing-in

Far from the long, often monotonous speeches politicians make when they take office, the youngest MP in New Zealand’s chamber gave Parliament a grand and astounding performance, performing a Haka of the Maori people for her swearing-in.

Just like the All Blacks do in rugby, the youngest MP in New Zealand political history, Hana Maïpi Clarke, chose Wellington Parliament to perform a Haka, this Maori war dance. At the age of 21, with bulging eyes and a swollen chest, it was she who made her future political adversaries tremble, for her very first speech at the beginning of January, supported by representatives of the Maori people who came attend his swearing-in. Impressing your enemies is the whole purpose of the Haka.

Hana Maïpi Clarke already has political enemies: she accuses, alongside the five other deputies representing the native people of New Zealand, the ruling coalition of pursuing an anti-Māori policy. Hana Maïpi Clarke’s oath also sounds like an entry into resistance: “The first words we speak in this chamber are an oath to you. I am at your service inside and outside this Parliament. I would die for you in this chamber and live for you outside of these walls, she declared. To all the Māori children and all our grandchildren, I say: They may come after me, but I won’t let them attack you.”

Reforms against Maori law

This message is addressed to members of the liberal coalition of Prime Minister Christopher Luxon, supported by conservatives and populists and behind a dozen reforms intended to reduce the rights of indigenous peoples. His main argument is that these are racist laws, because they “are based on belonging to a people.”

Christopher Luxon, for example, wants to reduce the presence of the Maori language on New Zealand territory, by changing the name of several departments, eliminate the use of the Maori language in the public service, but above all eliminate the Maori health authority. This institution ensures that its people are well taken care of by the New Zealand health system.

There are obviously other measures of this type which call into question the Treaty of Waitangi, the founding act of the New Zealand nation, signed in 1840, which guarantees equal treatment between the Maori and the British settlers. It is precisely this document that New Zealand’s conservatives are now trying to rewrite. This is enough to perhaps understand a little better the warlike posture of Hana Maïpi Clarke, for her first appearance in the New Zealand parliament.