The Māori protest movement is a broad indigenous rights movement in New Zealand (). While there was a range of conflicts between Māori and European immigrants prior to the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840, the signing provided one reason for protesting. Disagreements in the decades following the signing sometimes included war.
In its modern form, the Māori protest movement emerged in the early 1970s as part of a broader Māori renaissance and has focused on issues such as the redressing Treaty of Waitangi grievances, Māori land-rights, the Māori language, culture, and racism in New Zealand. It has generally allied with the left-wing, although it differs from the mainstream left in a number of ways. Most members of the movement have been Māori but it has attracted some support from non-Māori New Zealanders and from other indigenous peoples around the world. Notable successes of the movement include establishment of the Waitangi Tribunal in 1975, the return of some Māori land, and the Māori language becoming an official language in New Zealand in 1987.
Background Although a large proportion of chiefs had signed the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840, there were almost immediately disagreement over British sovereignty of the country, which led to several armed conflicts and disputes beginning in the 1840s, including the Flagstaff War, a dispute over the flying of the British Union Flag at the then colonial capital, Kororāreka in the Bay of Islands.
The Māori King Movement (Kīngitanga) began in the 1850s partly as a means of focusing Māori power in a manner which would allow them to negotiate with the Governor and Queen on equal footing. The chiefs justified this by the treaty's guarantee of rangatiratanga (chieftainship), but in the early 1860s the government used the Māori King Movement as an excuse to invade lands in the eastern parts of the North Island, culminating in the Crown's confiscation of large parts of the Waikato and Taranaki from Māori – the government arguing that the chiefs of Waikato and Taranaki were rebels against the Crown.
Since then, Māori have used petitions, court cases, deputations to the British monarch and to the New Zealand and British governments, passive resistance and boycotts to try to achieve their goals. Some of this resistance came from religious groups such as Pai Mārire (from the 1860s) and Ringatū (founded in 1868). Prophets such as Te Kooti (–1893), Rua Kenana (1869–1937) and Te Whiti (–1907) are early Māori activists who made a stand and brought followers to action against injustice. There were protests about the Maori Land Boards in 1905 and earlier too before the Maori Lands Administration Act of 1900.
Tahupōtiki Wiremu Rātana (1873–1939) founded a church and then joined parliament. The New Zealand Government history website says, "Rātana believed that for Māori to progress the Crown needed to honour the Treaty of Waitangi." Some Māori also worked within systems such as the New Zealand Parliament in order to resist land loss and cultural imperialism – in particular Ngata, one of the most important and influential Māori MP's (Member for Eastern Maori, 1905–1943), who tried to combine the benefits of both cultures for Māori.
From World War II (1939–1945), but especially from the 1950s, Māori moved from rural to urban areas in large numbers, this affected race relations, as previously there was less contact between Māori and pākehā. Māori urbanisation brought the differences between the cultures and the economic gaps between Māori and into the open. Urban Māori tended to be young as the elders stayed in the rural areas and so did not have the support or influence of their and . They also encountered barriers in housing, income options, and general bigotry.
Several new groups, most prominently the Māori Women's Welfare League (founded in 1951) and the New Zealand Māori Council (formed in 1962) emerged to help urban Māori and to provide a unified voice for Māori. The first president of the Māori Women's Welfare League was Whina Cooper. These groups were conservative by later standards but did criticise the government on numerous occasions.
The first significant Māori connection with pākehā activists came during controversy over the exclusion of Māori players from the 1960 All Blacks rugby tour of South Africa. Author Rawiri Taonui says: "Pākehā marched against racism in South Africa; Māori marched against racism in South Africa and Aotearoa."
The Māori Affairs Amendment Act In the mid-1960s the National government proposed to make Māori land more 'economic' by encouraging its transfer to a system of land ownership. The Māori Affairs Amendment Act 1967, as it became, generally allowed greater interference in Māori landholding, and was widely seen amongst Māori as a "land grab". Under the Māori Affairs Act of 1957, land owners who had shares less than $50 were forced to sell their shares which became a problematic type of land alienation. This was intensified under the 1967 Act. The plans were strongly opposed by virtually every Māori group and organisation as the Act blatantly ignored the importance of Māori land being tūrangawaewae. Despite this, the Act was passed with only minor modifications.
The Act is generally seen as the catalyst for the Māori protest movement, and the evidence certainly points to this. However the movement can also be seen as part of a wider civil rights movement which emerged across the world in the 1960s. The Act was abolished under the Māori Affairs Amendment Act of 1974, led by minister of Māori Affairs, Matiu Rata
In November 2024, Tens of thousands of people gathered at New Zealand's parliament in Wellington, following a nine-day hīkoi, to protest the Treaty Principles Bill. Opponents of the bill argue it undermines Māori rights and the long-standing principles of the Treaty of Waitangi. The large-scale demonstration highlighted strong solidarity among Māori communities and their allies.
Sporting contact with South Africa
New Zealand has a long history of sporting contact with South Africa, especially through rugby union. Until the 1970s this resulted in discrimination against Māori players, since the apartheid political system in South Africa for most of the twentieth century did not allow people of different races to play sport together, and therefore South African officials requested that Māori players not be included in sides which toured their country. Despite some of New Zealand's best players being Māori, this was agreed to, and Māori were excluded from tours of South Africa. Some Māori always objected to this, but it did not become a major issue until 1960, when there were several public protests at Māori exclusion from that year's tour. The protest group Halt All Racist Tours was formed in 1969. Although this was an issue in which Māori were central, and Māori were involved in the protests, the anti-tour movement was dominated by .
In 1973, a proposed tour of New Zealand by the Springboks (the South African rugby team) was cancelled. In 1976 the South African government relented and allowed a mixed-race All Black team to tour South Africa. However, by this time international opinion had turned against any sporting contact with South Africa, and New Zealand faced significant international pressure to cut ties. Despite this, in 1981 the Springboks toured New Zealand, sparking mass protests and civil disobedience. Although continued to dominate the movement, Māori were prominent within it, and in Auckland formed the squad in order to remain autonomous within the wider movement.
During and after the Tour, many Māori protesters questioned protesters' commitment to racial equality, accusing them of focussing on racism in other countries while ignoring it within New Zealand. The majority of protesters were not heavily involved in protest after the Tour ended, but a significant minority, including several anti-Tour groups, turned their attention to New Zealand race issues, particularly prejudice and the Treaty of Waitangi.
Waitangi Day protests The first act of the Māori protest movement was arguably the boycott of Waitangi Day by a handful of Māori elders in 1968 in protest over the Māori Affairs Amendment Act. A small protest was also held at parliament, and was received by Labour MP Whetu Tirikatene-Sullivan. Although both were reported in the newspapers they made little impact. In 1971 the ceremonies were disrupted by the protest group Ngā Tamatoa (The Young Warriors) who chanted and performed during speeches, and attempted to destroy the flag. There have been other protests on Waitangi Day also.
Māori language and culture activism One of the early goals of the Māori protest movement was the promotion of Māori language (te reo Māori) and culture. Both of these had been generally ignored by the education system and New Zealand society in general, and schoolchildren were actively discouraged from speaking Māori in school. The 1867 Native Schools Act decreed that English should be the only language used in the education of Māori children- this policy was later rigorously enforced. This movement was led by Māori MPs who saw the advantages of Māori becoming fluent in a dominant world language. Until Māori became largely urbanised after World War II, this did not seriously damage the language since most Māori spoke it in their rural communities. Urbanisation produced a generation of Māori who mostly grew up in non-Māori environments and were therefore less exposed to the language. In addition, many parents felt that it was much more important for their children to be fluent in English and made no attempts to pass on the language.
As a result, many leaders of Māori protest were not fluent in Māori and felt that this was a major cultural loss. In the face of official indifference and sometimes hostility, Ngā Tamatoa and other groups initiated a number of schemes for the promotion of the language. These included Māori Language Day, which later became te Wiki o te Reo Māori (Māori Language Week); a programme which trained fluent speakers as teachers; and : Māori language pre-schools and later Māori kura or separate immersion schools at primary and secondary level. Later there were campaigns for a Māori share of the airwaves. These eventually resulted in the iwi radio stations and a Māori Television channel, all of which actively promote the language.
In 1987 Te Reo was made an official language of New Zealand, with the passing of the Māori Language Act. Activists also campaigned to change the names of landmarks such as mountains back to their original Māori names, and to end the mispronunciation of Māori words, especially by newsreaders and other broadcasters. Many Māori cultural forms, such as carving, weaving and performing arts such as haka had gone into decline in the nineteenth century. From the early twentieth century Āpirana Ngata and others made efforts to revive them, for example setting up intertribal competitions and getting state funding for meeting houses. Māori activists continued this tradition, but their primary focus was on stopping the abuse of Māori cultural forms.