Story summary
Historic protests
Māori have a long history of tautohetohe, protest and fighting for their rights.
- Hōne Heke cut down the flagpole four times that flew the Union Jack above Kororāreka in the Bay of Islands in 1844–45.
- In the 1880s protesters from Parihaka, Taranaki, disrupted surveys of confiscated land.
- In the late 19th century Māori petitioned Parliament over land grievances, and some went to England to present grievances to the monarch.
- In the 1890s Māori protesters obstructed Pākehā trying to open the spit across the mouth of Lake Ōnoke in Wairarapa.
More protests emerged in the 1960s, alongside protest movements over women’s rights and the Vietnam War.
Waitangi Day
The first Waitangi Day protest at Waitangi was organised by activist group Ngā Tamatoa in 1971. They remain a regular occurrence. In 1975 the Waitangi Tribunal was set up to investigate breaches of te Tiriti o Waitangi.
Land protests
Early land protests included petitions, land occupations and removing survey pegs. Pan-tribal movements such as the Kīngitanga (King movement) and Kotahitanga (Māori parliament movement) were set up to advocate on land issues.
In 1975 Whina Cooper led a hīkoi from Te Hāpua in the far north to Parliament to protest over land loss.
Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei occupied their lands at Takaparawhau, Bastion Point, Auckland, for 506 days in 1977–78. The land was later returned. Protesters have also occupied land at Whāingaroa (Raglan), Pākaitore (Whanganui), Ngāwhā (Bay of Islands) and Ihumātao, as well as other places.
Rugby and apartheid
In 1960 there were protests over a decision to exclude Māori players from an All Black rugby team touring South Africa. There were more protests over Māori and Pacific Island players being considered ‘honorary whites’ for the 1970 tour. Protests against the South African Springbok team’s tour of New Zealand in 1981 were the largest in the country’s history.
Cultural protests
In 1972 a petition to have the Māori language taught in schools, signed by 30,000 people, was presented to Parliament.
In 1979 a Māori group stopped University of Auckland engineering students performing a mock haka.
In the 2000s, protesters successfully attempted to have the tino rangatiratanga flag (which became the national Māori flag) flown on the Auckland Harbour Bridge.
Government proposals
Māori also protested against:
- the 1995 ‘fiscal envelope’, which placed a cap of $1 billion on Waitangi Tribunal claims (but was not implemented)
- the Foreshore and Seabed Act 2004, which overturned a court ruling that Māori could claim customary rights to the foreshore and seabed.
