Thousands of Maori demonstrated outside parliament yesterday to protest government plans to nationalize New Zealand's shoreline -- which indigenous tribes say belongs to them.
A sea of people, banners and Maori sovereignty flags engulfed the grounds in front of parliament as marchers demanded the Labor-led coalition government dump its plans to "confiscate" Maori land.
As marchers crammed the grounds, Deputy Prime Minister Michael Cullen and several Maori lawmakers came out to greet the protesters in line with Maori tribal tradition.
Their presence sparked a fierce Maori haka war dance by 40 bare-chested warriors armed with clubs and spears.
"No Raupatu" (confiscation) and "Legalized Theft" read banners as the crowd shouted for the Labor government's seven Maori lawmakers to vote against the law.
Faced with the defection of two Maori women Labor lawmakers who oppose the law, center-left Prime Minister Helen Clark has enlisted the support of anti-migrant New Zealand First Party to help pass the law, which was due to be voted on for the first time today. The government needs a minimum 61 votes in the 120-member house. It has currently marshaled 65 votes.
The government says that the legislation is intended to protect public access to beaches while granting Maori "customary use" of their ancestral areas on the coast.
Maori say the plan will strip tribes of their customary ownership of coastal areas, contravening the Treaty of Waitangi. Signed in 1840, the treaty made indigenous Maori into citizens under British rule and guaranteed their rights to their lands, forests, fisheries, culture and language.
Maori, who make up 530,000 of New Zealand's 4 million people, are among the poorest, least healthy, worst educated and poorest housed -- and suffer high unemployment.
The crowd chanted that "Maori own the foreshore" and warned government "don't you ... confiscate" Maori land.
The government should not use "its brutal power to take something that belongs to someone else," said Ngapuhi tribal elder Rima Edwards.
Police estimated the crowd at 15,000 while local media reported at least 20,000 had joined the protest.
Former national Maori Council chairman and tribal elder Sir Graeme Latimer urged Clark to take heed of the protest.
"You can't ignore ... 20,000 people gathered on a cold day," he said, adding "it could do them a lot of harm" in next year's election if they ignore Maori opposition to the law.
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