New Zealand MPs perform a haka during a sitting of Parliament

The aim of this traditional dance, popularized by the All Blacks national rugby team, was to protest against a bill aimed at redefining the relationship between the Maori and the rest of the country.

A session like no other that went around the world. MPs from the New Zealand Maori Party interrupted a parliamentary session on Thursday, November 14, with a haka dance. The goal: to oppose a proposed race relations bill that has sparked protests across the country.

Maori Party MP Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke, called to announce the votes of her group's MPs, stood up, tore the bill in two and began a Then die, the song dance traditionally practiced by the Maori during conflicts to impress their adversaries. Other members of her party immediately joined her in this dance popularized worldwide by the All Blacks, the New Zealand rugby team.

The Speaker of Parliament, Gerry Brownlee, evacuated spectators from the public gallery and briefly interrupted the proceedings, condemning the interruption which he considered “grossly disordered”. MP Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke has been suspended for one day.

The law that was to be debated that day aims to reinterpret the Treaty of Waitangi, signed in 1840 between New Zealand's Maori and European settlers, and considered the country's founding treaty. The text was proposed by a minority party belonging to the government coalition, and is not supported within the government coalition itself, but its detractors claim that it would have the effect of dismantling programs (notably education) intended to Maori citizens and could further sour interracial relations.

Thousands of people joined a march across the country to protest the law, blocking highways on their way to the capital, Wellington. The demonstrators, whose number is estimated at 10,000, are expected to arrive in front of Parliament early next week.