"Don't touch the Founding Treaty" Haaca Chun Maori...Tens of thousands of protesters.

[Anchor]
Tens of thousands of New Zealanders have demonstrated against the proposed legislation to redefine the founding treaty with the indigenous Maori people.

In parliament, Māori members protested by performing the traditional dance "Haka."

Reporter Yoon Hyun-sook reports.

[Reporter]
New Zealand Parliament in the midst of discussions over the bill.A Māori member who opposes the enactment of the

Act rips a copy and begins to dance the traditional dance 'Haka' with a shout.

The embarrassed-looking speaker declares adjournment as fellow lawmakers and the audience join.

The bill they opposed by dancing to haka calls for reinterpreting the "Waitangi Treaty," the basis of New Zealand's founding.

The treaty, signed in 1840 between the British royal family and the Maori people, guarantees the cultural rights of indigenous people, including land and language.

New Zealand's Action Party, a member of the right-wing coalition, says the treaty treats the Maori in special treatment and insists it needs to be redefined legally.

[David Seymour / New Zealand Action Party leader] Successive governments have promoted this division. Divisions exist, whether or not this bill is exposed, and we can no longer overlook it.]

Tens of thousands of New Zealanders holding flags symbolizing Maori sovereignty gathered in front of the Capitol.

It encouraged Maori protesters who have marched hundreds of kilometers of peace from the North Island to the Capitol and called for the repeal of the bill.

A member of Congress, who led a haka and was suspended for a day, also participated.

[Hana Rawiti Maifi Clarke / New Zealand Maori Party MP: We are sovereigns of the land, and the world is watching us not because of institutions or rules, but because of our haka.]

Local media called the protest the largest in New Zealand's history.

I'm YTN's Yoon Hyunsuk.



Video editing: Lim Hyun-chul