New Delhi:

New Zealand’s youngest MP Hana-Rawhiti Kareariki Maipi-Clarke, who shot to viral fame after performing a haka during her maiden speech in Parliament last year, is back in the spotlight after she once again performed the traditional Maori dance and tore up a copy of a controversial bill during a session of the House of Representatives.

A viral video of the vote on the Treaty Principles Bill shows 22-year-old Te Pati Maori MP interrupting the session by ripping apart a copy of the legislation before performing a haka. She is then joined by those in the public gallery, prompting Speaker Gerry Brownlee to briefly adjourn the House.

The ACT New Zealand party, a junior partner in the country’s centre-right coalition government, last week unveiled the bill, which aims to change some principles of the Treaty of Waitangi – a move opposed by many Maori.

The Treaty was first signed in 1840 between the British Crown and more than 500 Maori chiefs and sets out how the two parties agreed to govern. The interpretation of the clauses in the document continues to guide legislation and policy today.

However, the bill is seen by many Maori and their supporters as undermining the rights of the country’s indigenous people, who make up about 20% of the population of 5.3 million people.

🔥Unprecedented and simply beautiful. That time in November 2024, when a haka led by Aotearoa’s youngest MP, 22 years old, Hana-Rawhiti Kareariki Maipi-Clarke, broke out in the House of Representatives, preventing the Treaty Principles Act from passing at first reading, prompting the Speaker incited to suspend Parliament. pic.twitter.com/pkI7q7WGlr

— Kelvin Morgan 🇳🇿 (@kelvin_morganNZ) November 14, 2024

As the proposed bill passed its first reading, hundreds of people set out on a nine-day march, or hikoi, from New Zealand’s north to the national capital of Wellington to mark their protest.

Coalition partners the National Party and New Zealand First will only support the legislation through the first of three readings as part of the coalition agreement. Both parties have said they will not support this becoming law.

“You cannot, with a single stroke of a pen, deny 184 years of debate and discussion, with a bill that, in my opinion, is very simplistic,” Prime Minister Christopher Luxon told reporters before heading to Peru for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit (APEC).