Controversial legislation revises the 184-year-old Treaty of Waitangi, which gave Maori tribes land rights.

Thousands of people have joined a nine-day march on New Zealand’s capital over a controversial bill that redefines the founding agreement between the British and the indigenous Maori people.

New Zealand police said about 10,000 people marched through the city of Rotorua on Friday in protest against the Treaty Principles Bill, greeted by hundreds waving the Maori flag as they headed south to the capital Wellington, some 450km away.

The march – or hikoi in the Maori language – is expected to reach Wellington on Tuesday, with participants staging rallies as they march through towns and cities across the country after the bill was read out for the first time in Parliament on Thursday.

The measure revises the 184-year-old Treaty of Waitangi, a document that grants Maori tribes broad rights to retain their lands and protect their interests in exchange for ceding governance to the British. The document continues to provide guidance for legislation and policy.

The ACT New Zealand party, a junior partner in the ruling centre-right coalition government, last week unveiled the bill, which it had promised during last year’s election, arguing these rights should also apply to non-indigenous citizens.

Maori people and their supporters say the bill threatens racial strife and undermines the rights of the country’s indigenous population, who make up about 20 percent of its 5.3 million population.

As MPs voted on the bill on Thursday, 22-year-old lawmaker Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke, from the Te Pati Maori Party, tore up a copy of the bill and led her colleagues in a traditional haka dance.

Parliament briefly adjourned as people in the stands joined in, their shouts drowning out the debate in the chamber.

The measure passed its first reading by 68 votes in favor to 54 against – one vote fewer than the parliament’s 123 MPs, due to Maipi-Clarke’s subsequent suspension – but it appears unlikely to become law.

Coalition partners the National Party and New Zealand First will only support the legislation through the first of three readings to achieve a deal with ACT New Zealand.

National Party leader Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said on Thursday the treaty’s principles had been negotiated and debated for 184 years and it was “simplistic” for ACT New Zealand leader David Seymour to suggest they could be resolved “via the stroke of the pen”.

Seymour said people who oppose the legislation want to “stir up” fear and division. “My mission is to empower every person,” he added.