Haka, Hikoi And The Empowerment Of The Kohanga Generation

Wednesday, 18 December 2024, 6:26 pm
Opinion: Ian Powell

Internationally at least the haka is most associated with Aotearoa New Zealand’s national men’s rugby team, the All Blacks. It immediately preceded the start of test matches.

The haka is a customary Māori way of welcoming visitors but traditionally also served to invigorate warriors as they headed into battle. It is both a show of physical prowess and an embodiment of cultural pride, strength, and unity.

Beginning with an unprecedented haka

While it is occasionally used ceremonially in Parliament, on 14 November the haka was used as an unprecedented and visually dramatic protest against a controversial bill that sought to simplistically and misleadingly reinterpret New Zealand’s founding document, the Treaty of Waitangi (1840).

The haka was led by Te Pati Māori which has six MPs in Parliament (six of the seven Māori electorate MPs). But it was also supported by many Labour and Green MPs with some actively participating.

The dramatic event achieved enormous coverage including overseas. As an example of the massive international media coverage of this extraordinary event, below is the introduction to a BBC online report (15 November):

New Zealands [sic] parliament was temporarily halted by Māori politicians performing a haka.

The MP’s were angry over a controversial bill and performed the haka as a protest.

The proposed law would reinterpret 184 year treaty with the Māori people.

New Zealand’s youngest MP Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke began the traditional ceremonial chant also ripped up a copy of the bill.

Parliament was briefly suspended as people in the gallery joined in, and the shouting drowned out others in the room.

This dramatic event occurred the week prior to the arrival of a huge hikoi starting both the top of the North Island and bottom of the South Island.

The first national hikoi

Until 1975 hikois were largely regarded a communal walk or a public march as a form of protest.

In contrast to Christopher Luxon in 2024, in 1975 Prime Minister Bill Rowling met the hikoi

But this changed with one of the biggest protests to date in New Zealand’s history, In 1975 about 5,000 marchers arrived in Parliament as the culmination of a national hikoi. They presented a petition signed by 60,000 people to the then Labour Prime Minister Bill Rowling.

The primary aim of this hīkoi was to protest against the continuing loss of Māori land. It was a powerful stimulus for stronger legislative recognition of the Treaty of Waitangi, including numerous consequential Treaty settlements.

The empowering second national hikoi

The second hikoi arrived in Parliament on 19 November. Attended by around 50,000, the largest national protest in Aotearoa. Further, an estimated 80,000 in total participated if those who joined the hikoi for various stages on its journey are included.

The culmination of the hikoi in Parliament Grounds was well covered by Newsroom journalist Fox Meyer (20 November).

The Treaty Principles Bill was the lightning rod for the hikoi but the focus was much wider than this. It was the catalyst for many but as the hīkoi reached Parliament it was clear that it was much more than this.

Instead it was a response to what was seen as a consistent anti- Māori rights narrative since the current government took office after the 2024 election. This false narrative was based on a disingenuous and dishonest claim of Māori privilege.

Poverty, health status and housing conditions alone give the lie to this absurdity. But this has not stopped the government from, in the words of Fox Meyer, spending “…its first year in power running a policy blitz of legislation that data suggests will disproportionately affect Māori.”

Kohanga Reo generation

The hikoi was about empowerment. Along with its size, organisation and passion, what stood out was its young leadership such as haka leader Maipi-Clarke. Its leadership was recognised as the Kohanga generation.

The Kōhanga Reo philosophy is a Māori world view and the movement’s goal is to revitalise and increase the use of the Māori language and traditional Māori beliefs and customary practices with all who embrace it.

In part inspired by the 1975 national hikoi kohanga reo ‘language nests’ began to be set up in the mid-1980s. This led to a proliferation of Māori immersion and bilingual education providers throughout the system.

Kohanga reo proved to be generationally empowering. From this empowerment a new generation of Māori leaders have now emerged, much to the delight and pride of their elders.

From struggle to consciousness to empowerment

I’m an admirer of English Marxist historian EP Thompson. Arguably the most famous of his numerous published works was The Making of the English Working Class.

Thompson argued against a narrow view within Marxism that saw consciousness as little more than a reflection of material circumstances.

His contrary and convincing argument was that people were active, rather than simply reactive, in forging the shape of their struggles. Further, it was from struggle in its various forms that consciousness was actively self-created.

Although Thompson’s focus was on the relationship between class struggle and consciousness, the hikoi and its preceding haka were not divorced from class. The hikoi was not a narrow form of identity politics; it saw linkages with other struggles.

Empowerment is what follows consciousness. This relationship (and its precursor of struggle) was central to Thompson’s thinking. He would have applauded the final words at the hikoi by Maipi-Clarke: 

This march was never about the [Treaty Principles] bill. I ripped that in half and chucked it away [as part of the haka in Parliament]. This march was about us: walking, marching, side-by-side, generation-by-generation.

EP Thompson would have said ‘right on’. It was about consciousness coming from struggle and strengthening the basis for empowerment. New Zealanders should be indebted to the hikoi for this.

© Scoop Media

Ian Powell

Otaihanga Second Opinion is a regular health systems blog in New Zealand.

Ian Powell is the editor of the health systems blog 'Otaihanga Second Opinion.' He is also a columnist for New Zealand Doctor, occasional columnist for the Sunday Star Times, and contributor to the Victoria University hosted Democracy Project. For over 30 years , until December 2019, he was the Executive Director of Association of Salaried Medical Specialists, the union representing senior doctors and dentists in New Zealand.

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