VIDEO: New Zealand Parliament Suspended As MPs Perform Haka In Protest Over Bill To Limit Maori Rights

New Zealand’s parliament was disrupted by a haka on Nov. 14, during the reading of a controversial bill that proposes to alter the way the country’s treaty between the indigenous Maori and the British Crown is interpreted.

A vote on the bill was suspended when opposition parties and people in the public gallery joined in the haka, led by Patri Maori MP Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke, who also ripped up a copy of the bill.

The bill has been criticized for challenging principles outlined in New Zealand’s founding document, the Treaty of Waitangi – signed in 1840 between the British Crown and more than 500 Maori chiefs.

The bill later passed its first reading and Maipi-Clarke was suspended, the NZ Herald reported.

Thousands of people have been on a nine-day march towards Wellington in opposition to the bill.

Credit: Te Pati Maori via Storyful