New Zealand controversy: Maori lawmaker performs ‘haka’ to protest racism and gets kicked out of Parliament

Maori co-leader Roiri Waititi was expelled from New Zealand’s parliament on Wednesday for ‘hakka’.It is a traditional Maori dance that is challenging, protesting the “racist rhetoric and propaganda” of the opposition National Party.

For about two weeks the leader of the National Party said, Judith Collins, criticizes the Prime Minister of New Zealand, Jacinda Ardern, to seek ways for indigenous peoples to better exercise their rights.

Collins claims, without evidence, that these attempts are part of a “separatist agenda.”

Tensions escalated on Wednesday when Maori party leader Deby Ngarwa-Packer asked Ardern if he considered the “continued attacks against Maori to be racist”, referring to Collins.

Ngariwa Packer’s question was blocked by the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Trevor Mallardwho explained that this comment was Outside the responsibility of the Prime Minister, which allowed Collins to continue the discussion.

At that time, Waititi stood up to denounce what he had heard in recent weeks Racist propaganda against indigenous peoples and questioning Parliament to allow ” continuous bombardmentof insults country people (Maori expression to refer to the traditional owners of the land.)

The Speaker of the House, uncomfortable, asked him to sit down, but the Maori legislator made hakaFestive Challenge Dance.

After Mallard kicked him out of the session, Waititi, accompanied by Ngariwa Packer, said that “It is not true that the Speaker of the House of Representatives does not have the courage to stop racism in the House, and it is not true that we support it.”, depending Radio New Zealand.

This is not the first time Waititi has been expelled from the assembly, as in February he was also forced to leave the legislature in Refusal to wear a tie on the grounds that it is not part of Māori dress code It is a colonial dress.

Maori make up about 850,000 of New Zealand’s population of 5 millionAlthough a large section of the population lives in poverty or suffers from financial insecurity, in addition to facing social problems.

(With information from EFE)

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