(GULLS SQUAWK, SHIP HORN HONKS) (TENSE STRING MUSIC) - MAN CHANTS: One, two, three, four! - CROWD: One, two, three, four! - Maori own the foreshore! - Maori own the foreshore! - This legislation is discriminatory; it's racist. It shouldn't have proceeded. - What this government is doing is wrong, and it is evil. - There's a general feeling across the Maoridom ` unless we move now as a people, there's going to be no real change. (CROSSWALK SIGNAL TRILLS) - 20 years ago, as a 10-year-old boy myself, my whanau, some of my kura mates and thousands of others marched this very street in one of the biggest protest movements in history ` the Foreshore And Seabed hikoi. As a boy, I had no idea what we were marching about or why we were marching in the first place, but I could feel a wairua ` a sense of injustice, anger, frustration and sadness. Two decades on, I want to retrace the steps taken on the hikoi to understand the why and to understand the importance of hikoi in our history. (CROWD CHANTS) - I think it's about raw, venal, selfish politics. (SOMBRE STRING MUSIC) - What it is is the same old faces ` The Ken Mairs, the Harawira families, the Annette Sykes, the haters and wreckers. - HONE HARAWIRA: It's about time we started looking to a new future! We have to look to people like Tariana, who had the courage to say to these people in here, 'You can't push me around. I have my people behind me.' (CROWD CHEERS) Captions were made with the support of NZ On Air. www.able.co.nz Copyright Able 2024 (PENSIVE MUSIC) - When my ancestors arrived in Aotearoa from the sea, out of the sea, they found more than land. They found a home, a sanctuary. They developed a special connection to this whenua and, just as importantly, the foreshore and seabed. - It's our spiritual sustenance. No different to our whenua around the motu, around Aotearoa. Our wairuatanga, our spiritual sustenance in regard to us as a people. It brings about our physical sustenance as well ` kaimoana, all those wonderful taonga that our tupuna left behind for us to protect, defend, um, and look after into the future. - Ka tirohia e nga manene me nga kaitami ka warawara ki te whenua. Na reira, ka noho tonu te takutai moana ki a tatou, mo te horonga e kore nei e motu. Kaore he pire kawana e whakahe mai ana. He a ngai Maori te mana o te takutai moana. - Customary rights have never been extinguished, and I think that's an important point. It's never been extinguished. It's ours, and therefore we have the right to use that. - I te tau rua mano ma toru, ka hiahia a Ngati Apa me tahi a te iwi a Te Waipounamu whakatu pakihi ki nga moana o to ratou takiwa, ka whakahengia ta ratou tono a mea rawa ake ka haere atu te take te Koti Pira. - The decision of the Court of Appeal was very simple. Didn't say that Maori specifically owned the foreshore and seabed. Simply said that the Maori Land Court had jurisdiction to determine whether or not the foreshore and seabed of Marlborough Sounds was Maori customary land. - What the court did was it made an order which basically said, 'Yes, 'the Maori Land Court is a vehicle for you, 'and the Maori Land Court can recognise your customary title 'to your takutai.' And what the government saw from Ngati Apa was, 'Oh, there's going to be floodgate of applications from Maori. 'We're going to have Maori getting ownership rights recognised in the takutai moana.' And they saw that as a threat, so they responded. - This decision caused quite a stir across the road at Parliament, so they'd created legislation that would become the Foreshore and Seabed Act. - Morning. - Morning all. How are you? - Well, it was the Labour government at the time, and how they responded was that they introduced a policy, and the policy said, 'We're going to stop Maori from being able to go to the Maori Land Court. 'And the way that we're going to do that is we are going to own the foreshore and seabed ourselves.' So they introduced a policy which would vest complete ownership of the foreshore and seabed on the Crown, and then the Crown would become the owner. And the question of whether Maori owned it would be determined and clarified by that law. And that law would say, 'No, you don't own it.' It was a full-scale sweep ` all ownership rights which were available to Maori following Ngati Apa, um, should they go to the court to have those rights determined ` gone. - Our position has always been to try to balance two objectives ` the general public's right of access and use of foreshore-seabed areas, and secondly, to uphold and protect Maori customary interests. And we think we've got a good balance. I don't say it will please either extreme of the debate, but it doesn't set out to. - MIKE HOSKING: You won't be asserting Crown ownership? - What I have said from day one is that there will need to be clarifying legislation, and today's proposal set out what the nature of that would be. - What's your assessment of the political impact on this? Of all the things your government faces, how big a deal is this, actually? - (CHUCKLES) Actually, not as big as many of the headlines would suggest, some of the subeditors think it is. I think it's one of a number of issues swirling around out there. People expect the government to find a solution to it, but I don't think it's the first thing people are talking about over their coffee cups. - Maybe not in the Beehive, but elsewhere in the highest reaches of Maori academia and law, the jug was boiling. - The legislation is a confiscation of things which the Treaty says belong to Maori under the full, exclusive and undisturbed possession of our whenua. It's a confiscation of things which the common law recognises as part of our Aboriginal title and as the confiscation of things that, under human rights norms, are internationally recognised as belonging to indigenous peoples. It's an unjust and unfair piece of legislation. - I was shocked. But you know what? That fundamentally told` or simply myself and I know some others` that here is still this group of people that, if they challenged in regard to the ownership of land, they still wanted to assert their rights, Crown rights, in regard to the ownership of the seabed and foreshore. - It was a sense that, by denying the opportunity to even take it to court, it was just straight theft. No opportunity to challenge, to see whether or not what the Crown was saying was right. Um, it was just a real insult. I started hearing, you know, some serious... korero from people that they were going to block beaches, going to burn down Ministry of, I think, Ag and Fish and all of that kind of stuff at that time. It became clear that we needed to do something. - Mai Paritu ki Turakirae, ko te iwi o toku kuia o Ngati Kahungunu he iwi noho tahatai. I te kite ngai nga ahuatanga e pana ki Ngati Apa i te tonga, o Ngati Kahungunu tetahi ki te tuatahi atu i nga riporiponga o te Pire Takutai Moana, ka mutu i ka kama te whakarite kia rite. - People came to the conclusion really fast that we were all going to lose. There were no winners in this. - Yeah. - And it wasn't going to be any good for any of us. We were all going to get smashed over. And I think when Maoridom collectively... When we're going to all get smashed over, and no one is going to be left out, we unite really, really well. - Mm. - It just sparked up our memories of the original land losses. We were very prepared to stand up and be counted. - I think part of it too, was the way that Helen Clark did it. It was very underhanded. It was very uncompromising. No holds barred. She just came in and said, 'This is what we're going to do.' And despite the objection all over the country, there was no gentleness about her. She just went home and kind of, 'I'm just gonna cut your throats.' - We weren't afraid of political upheaval. And then we reached out to Moana and Mereana and Mere and Taenga. - Mm. - Said, 'What should we do about it?' And they all said the same thing. I said, 'We're thinking about a hikoi.' They said, 'Hikois went out with the Ark.' (LAUGHS) - (LAUGHS) (TENSE STRING MUSIC) - I tau tera ` ko te tua ono o Haratua rua mano ma wha ka panuitia te pire. Tona toru wiki nei ka tatu. Conversations went from regional to national. It became urgent. - This has been very much pushed by our whanaunga from Ngati Kahungunu who said, 'We're marching.' They'd already decided that they were fed up and they were gonna march. That word just spread around the country and then ended up with us. I rang around people and organised a national conference call, and (CLAPS) it's on. It was just a sense that, um... if we could get the right people engaged ` and I'm talking movement people, nothing else, just our people ` the word would spread naturally anyway. Because people wanted to do something, so it wasn't going to be that hard. Said, 'Well, if we have to be at Parliament on May the 5th, 'that means we have to be in Wellington on May the 4th ` 'the night of May the 4th. 'If we're in Wellington on the night of May the 4th, 'Where do we come from for the night of May the 3rd? 'Otaki, Raukawa.' And then from there, worked my way all the way back up home to Te Rerenga Wairua. (SOLEMN MUSIC) - Ngai ehara i te mea he tau hou te Maori ki tenei mea te hikoi. Te tau whitu tekau ma rima, timata mai ai te hikoi whenua i konei i Te Hapua. He mea arahi i te kuia a te Kahurangi, e Whina Cooper. (POIGNANT MUSIC) Ko tera hunga tokomaha i whai wahi atu ki te hikoi tona toru tekau tau to mua atu, tae ki Te Rerenga Wairua i te ata o te rua tekau ma rua o Paengawhawha. Ko nga kuia me nga koroua i rite ana ki te whawhai ano. - Morena. (CHUCKLES) - Well, the morning we started, you know, we had all of our kaumatua and kuia up there, eh. Make you want to cry ` the number of them that were there. You knew we were doing the right thing. Often when you march, you don't get that kind of support. Actually, always when you march, you don't get that level of support. But this time, it was there, and you knew right from that day, from that minute that, uh` that people were behind us. - Much to my great sadness and great disappointment, I find myself having to do what my ancestors were doing ` fighting to try and stop people stealing land from us. - They haven't got the power higher than the one above us, and they will never gain what they are trying to do to the Maori people. - CROWD: # Tenei te tangata, # puru-huru, # nana nei tiki mai, # whakawhiti te ra! # ...he wahi e mea ana tokomaha ko te hupeketanga whakamutunga o te hunga kua riro. He rangona na te kahu o tua whakarere. Ka mahara kei kite momo penei a Moana Jackson me Titewhai Harawira ` he para i te huarahi mo nga reanga e pihi ake nei. (STIRRING STRING MUSIC) I feel more empowered than ever to tell this story. - What I knew was that the initial arguments of having the judicial process overturned through a political decision was something that had caused a lot of offence to the people in Ngati Apa, but also to those Maori lawyers and academics who were observing the situation and asking themselves, well, what are the broader ramifications? And then, you know, of course, Maori politicians and the political discourse started to take shape as well. - Traditionally, Labour had the Maori vote. In 2004, they held all seven Maori seats. So the bill confronted them with a difficult choice ` party or people. - REPORTER: Dr Cullen, are how worried are you that your Maori MPs won't support your legislation? - Um, we are in continued discussions with our Maori MPs, uh, and we've had a lot of useful discussion going on. - Some talk of crossing the floor, even. Are you confident that the Maori element is going to vote with the government on them? - I believe that we will have the numbers in Parliament for the proposals that we'll be putting forward next Wednesday, and that we will have a lot of people recognising that this is the only sensible way forward. - What were those early initial conversations like? - Heated and tense. And... Well, without divulging things that happened within your caucus, you can imagine that you had Maori members representing Maori electorates who were getting opinions back from their own rohe, and iwi from their own rohe were saying, 'Hey, why is this happening?' - You made a decision whether to support it yourself. - Oh, I'm taking advice from my electorate. - Would crossing the floor, um, warrant you handing in your ministerial warrant? - Well, that remains to be seen. - I really don't have anything to say about it. - I felt... outraged to have been part of a government that was prepared to do that to us. I was hurt. I was angry. Um... I felt really sad for our people. - So these weren't pleasant conversations. They weren't easy. There was table thumping and tears. There were some pretty straight-up, stern, straight-talking words spoken. And through all of that, I would have to say that, in my mind, I knew then that this was an issue significant enough that it would really impact on the way that, um, we saw ourselves as a people, as a nation. - Chur, bro! 'I reira Hirikia i te timatanga o te hikoi. 'Penei ahau nei, ka toia ano iho atu, 'me te kore mohio ki te hohonu o te kaupapa nei.' - Just gotta bait you up, and then we're ready to go. - Ka pai, bro. I don't want to get my hands dirty, so... - (LAUGHS) Here, bro. You're good to go. - Yee-hee! - You got the handline today. - Flash one, eh? - And I've got the real rod. - Far North-sties. Come on. So, bro... 20 years ago, you would have been 10? - Yes. - About 10? - 10. - And you were part of the hikoi from the very beginning, eh? - From the very beginning, bro. - Did you know at the time how significant that kaupapa was going to be? - Not really. It wasn't until we got into Ahipara, and then we just started seeing the hundreds and hundreds of people joining the kaupapa. It was actually meant to be the end for me and Kahi at the Te Ahu centre in Kaitaia. And we ended up in Wellington. (BOTH LAUGH) - Far out. - Oh, my parents were... They were furious. (LAUGHS) But nah, we were looked after really well by, um, a cop ` Matua Rick Whiu. - Mm. - Who's no longer with us, and yeah, it was very cool. - Mm. - Yeah, riding in the police car everywhere and... And we started learning a haka. He Tai Timu. That was a haka that was composed on the hikoi by our kaumatua. - Do you still remember that haka? - Definitely, bro. Oh, they go, 'He tai timu, he tai pari. 'E te karetao o te Kawana, 'ko wai koe? Ko wai koe, 'hei aha tau taka-takahia 'te tapu o te takutai, 'o te moana, 'o Tangaroa e? 'Ina, ana, 'hoea ra. 'Ina, ana, 'hoea ra. Hi!' (POIGNANT MUSIC) - It's important to understand the political landscape of the time. The foreshore and seabed wasn't the only challenge or obstacle. National had a new leader; Labour was slipping in the polls. - National was in rebuild. And in rebuild simply meant that it had to stand for something far more vigorous, and that's what Brash brought to the game. (INDISTINCT CHATTER) - None of us was around at the time of the New Zealand wars. None of us had anything to do with the confiscations. There is a limit to how much any generation can apologise for the sins of its great-grandparents. (OMINOUS MUSIC) - Ko te tau tokona o Don Brash me te Pati Nahinara i whana ikeike nei. In a poll in February after that speech, National pulled ahead of Labour for the first time. - Dr Brash is with me. Good morning. - Good morning. - What do you say to people who accuse you now of Maori bashing? - Well, I say to them, how can you possibly accuse me of Maori bashing when what I'm saying is I want all New Zealanders, Maori, non-Maori to be treated equally? That can hardly be Maori bashing. - Dr Brash, New Zealand is perceived as having such a harmonious society. Surely it's a bit of a stretch to say that this country is racially divided. - I think we're moving down a racially divided track. We've got more and more laws on your Zealand which give special preferences or special status to Maori New Zealanders, and I think that's a very dangerous direction. - This rhetoric of 'Maori elitism' and 'special privilege' struck a chord with a growing number of Pakeha, but to Maori, it was untrue and deeply offensive. - Morning, Don. How are ya? - This has been a really challenging story to tell, because on one hand, I'm a journalist and I want to be completely unbiased. On the other hand, I'm Maori, and what happened back in 2004 still affects me and my people to this day. There's this tukituki within me. - Come forward. Haere mai. (CLAMOURING) - (SPITS) - Ka ponana ahau i te mamae no iho o ta tatou aro ki te porotiki me te kore i aro ki ta te Maori. Politics is a numbers game. Prime Minister Helen Clark was countering the growing support for Don brash and the National Party. Passing this bill was a must. - Well, I don't know cos... - But she couldn't rely on her Maori caucus, so she looked to Winston Peters and New Zealand First, who had the votes to give her a majority. - What ultimately happened, though, was what we were overcalled. Winston Peters had 13 votes. He gave Clark confidence that he could overrule the six or seven Maori MPs. So once` The real politics of that are that, um, she was able to play us off. And so what we had to do at that moment in time was either walk or salvage the best possible deal so we could fight for another day. That's the pragmatism of politics. - The political judgement at the highest level had already been made, and we were in a position where we had to accept a political judgement, a captain's call, and then deal with the process, which is what we did. It was a challenging time because we then had to ask ourselves, as Maori electorate MPs, how were we going to mitigate the most harmful aspects of with this legislation could take us? And, you know, uh, in hindsight, which is always a great thing... you start to wonder whether there should have been just a blanket 'no' from all the Maori MPs right at the beginning to even getting the legislation into the House. - I te taenga o te hikoi ki Tamaki, ka matau haere te tangata. Kaua ko nga kaitorangapu, me te iwi matauranganui ana. I marama te hunga rangatahi me te hunga pakeke ki nga take o te wa. Ko te kianga nei 'Maori seabed for shore' i hora paki te motu whanui. Ka mutu ko te ahua o te kara hei te kite a tonutia ki taku hinengaro i tenei ra. - Ehara i te mea na matou anake tenei kaupapa na te motu whanui ` te ao Maori. Ae. (CONTINUES IN TE REO MAORI) Kore warewaretia. Ae. - With numbers having reached 5000 on the main hikoi, organisers were met with their biggest obstacle yet. - I think we only found out the night before that it was going to be approved. In fact, we decided we were going to march the bridge anyway, eh. (DISTANT CHANTING) - How are you feeling today? - Excited, exhilarated, but really brassed off, for, 30 years later, we have to do the same thing that we were doing then against the same government. But this time, it's a little bit different, because New Zealand First has decided to join with the thieves and steal our land. - I te wa ka mutu o matou matua, ka waihotia ratou i tenei kaupapa kia matou. Ka timata matou inianei. - So how does it feel to see all these people here? - Absolutely wonderful. This is about the anger of Maori and the determination that we're going to save our takutai whenua for our mokopuna. (PENSIVE MUSIC) - Oh, I was on the Harbour Bridge. That was a fantastic moment. You could feel the bridge swaying, moving. The power of our people being able to walk across this bridge... You know? And I thought, wow. - SPEAKS TE REO MAORI: - Kei te pai tonu te haere`? - E te pai tonu. - I eke ki te rua haora kia whakawhiti haumaru nei te hikoi ki tera taha o te piriti. - Wally Haumaha had a lot to do with that whole police liaison. I think our march didn't have a lot of arrests because of the involvement of Maori iwi liaison policemen. - The crossing of the bridge was ambitious, but an incredible success. I kona ka poua te hikoi ki te pito o nga kaupapa korero puta no i te motu. - It's significant because one doesn't like to hold up traffic, cos you know that there could be all kinds of emergencies. But, um, somebody losing a couple of hours in traffic, you know, to us losing all our moana ` big difference. So, you know, it was little in comparison to what we lost. - We're here today to show the whole world ` shame to the coalition government. What they intended to do is to rip off 13 million acres of the sand and out at the sea and the shores. (SHOUTING) - I te whanaketanga o Nga Tamatoa, kua whakamahia e Tame Iti ona whakaaro auaha ki te to mai te aro ki nga take Maori. Kei te pehia? - Kei te pai, e hoa. - Ka pai. - Nau mai, haere mai, e hoa. - Tena koe. Kua roa nei koe e tohe ana i te tohe nui. - Ae, ae. - He pakanga na i te pakanga nui mo nga kaupapa huhu e mo nga kaupapa Maori. - Ae, ae, ae, ae. - He aha ki a koe te hua o te hikoi; he aha ki a koe te hua o te whakatumatuma? - Ko tera e... whakaohooho wairua tera mo te whakatumatuma mo te hinengaro tera. (CONTINUES IN TE REO MAORI) - Do you think activism is important then? - Oh, totally, you know. Because if you don't, well, then you allow it to happen. And the next generation will be talking about tera koretake hoki o era. You know, and, uh` And it's fun, too. - (CHUCKLES) - You gotta have fun, you know? Life is theatrical. - Mm. - And then so you have to respond to many` become Shakespeare. - Mm. - Yeah, yeah. And so we'd be spitting on the ground, do the pukana, take your pants off, do the whakapohane. That's all part of the theatre. - Yeah, the theatrics of it. - Yeah, you know. And, um... Yeah. And so, you know, there are many elements to it. Yeah. So I'm pretty good at that. (BOTH LAUGH) - Mea mai koe he old school koutou. He aha o whakaaro ki te new school ki te ana mata ki te apopo o te hunga e whaia nai o tapuwae? - SPEAKS TE REO MAORI: - I waimarie matou, taku reanga. - Ae, ae, ae. - I a koutou me te tohe nui... e tohe a e koutou. (CROWD CHANTS) As the hikoi gained momentum, more and more people joined, but that brought with it its own logistical challenges. Keeping people fed, housed and safe on the roads was a real challenge. Keeping in mind, too, they had to get everyone to Wellington by the 5th of May. (GROUP SING WAIATA) I takahi e te hikoi tona waru tekau kiromita i te ra. Ka taua tu ratou ki ia rohe he marae ona, ka whangaia, ka whakaruru hautia ratou. Taumata manaakitanga. On April 27th, Tariana Turia sought wisdom from her people. The pull to stand against the bill was undeniable. - Can we have a quick word`? - No. - Her constituency held their position ` she should vote against the bill. - Can we have a quick word with you about Crown ownership, then, of the seabed and foreshore? - We haven't got there yet. - They were furious with me. Michael and Helen... would ring me in the middle of the night to come down to Parliament. And... I always took my daughter with me. I didn't want to, um... put anyone else... in the situation of having to defend us. So I used to take my daughter. And, um... She couldn't believe it. Couldn't believe that they would do what they were doing. Hm. (TENSE STRING MUSIC) - She'd entertained abstaining from the vote. At the beginning of the year, that had been her initial thought. She could just abstain. But as she reflected on that, she thought that's not an option she wanted to take. She'd been sent to Parliament to do the business for the people, and abstaining seemed to her a weak action. Um, she was told she could take sick leave. She was told she could be out of the House on another appointment. That she could` And then they finally reached that she could not vote for the bill. (PENSIVE MUSIC) (WIND WHISTLES) - TARIANA: I'd had this dream, and I shared it with Archie Taiaroa, my cousin. And I told him that I was at the mouth of our river, and that a wave came up at the mouth. And on that wave were all the faces of our tupuna. And he said to me, 'What did you think when you saw them?' And I said, 'Well, 'I knew I had to do it.' I knew that I couldn't step back and pretend that it was OK, because it wasn't. When I first entered Parliament in 1996, I came in for our people. I did not enter politics for a house or a car. (MURMURS OF ENCOURAGEMENT) I was driven by the call of our people to respond to their needs and aspirations, and their rights as indigenous peoples of this nation. (GROUP PERFORMS HAKA) - While these conversations were going on inside Parliament, the hikoi continued. News of Tariana's stance emboldened those frustrated by the government's actions. - What do we want? - CROWD: Justice! - And I admire her strength, her courage, her mana. Good on you, Auntie Tari. We stand behind you. - He mahi rangatira tera, na tera mareikura o te ao Maori, te wahine toa o te ao Maori. Kei te tino mihi atu ki a ia mo tana kaha mo tana miharo ki te kaupapa ki tana iwi, ki tana motuhake hoki. - You were sacked straight away. You are no longer a cabinet minister. - That's right. - How did you get the notice of being sacked? - Um, I got it through the media. - Oh. This is a government also which has been poleaxed by that Court of Appeal decision. And it's a government that's given every impression of bending over backwards to accommodate not only you, but the Maori people. What about the democratic right of all of us now who live in this country to go to the foreshore and the seabed and to make use of it? Why do Maori have a spatial right? Where is it written Maori have a special right over the foreshore and the seabed? - Well, I think that what the Court of Appeal found was that the right had in fact not been extinguished. And so what it said was that our people had the right to go to the Maori Land Court, in fact, to check out whether they still had those property rights. And my personal view point is that is the right of any New Zealander when we are talking about property rights. No one's private property rights are being affected by this bill, only Maori people. - That's assuming that Maori have a property right there. But anyway` - Well, we should've been allowed to explore that in the court. I was lonely. And, um, if I'm telling the truth, I was miserable. But... it didn't take` I grew up in a family where you either did the right thing or you didn't. And if you didn't do the right thing, you had to own up to it. - I think she's the most inspirational person I've ever met, uh, for being able to truly stand up for her ideals at tremendous cost ` loss of friendships; hostility on a public sphere; constant barraging, harassment to do what the Labour machinery wanted her to do. - He nui nga Maori te whakaaro e kore rawa nga take Maori whai mananui i nga pati torangapu matua. They needed an independent voice that would better understand them and advocate better for them. Tariana's decision forced action. - Oh! Tena koe, haere mai. Haere mai. - Tena koe. - I korerohia te take o te haere ki te whare Paremata i mua o te hikoi. I hui tahi matou ki te kainga o Eva Rickard. Matou katoa. Hei whakakaohia katoatia ki runga o Whaingaroa ki reira korero ai. Tuatahi mo te hikoi, tuarua mo te whakatu mo tetahi ropu. I te mea ko puta mai tera korero ko rongo na taringa te hiahia ki te whakara ki tera kaupapa. Ka mutu i whakakotahi mai matou ki muri i a ia me kore paku mohio te uaua te... nga piki mea hei ki o te mahi torangapu. Engari, i tautoko i a ia na rongo te tika o te kaupapa. Me te whakaaro ake me na kotahi anake te wahine Maori nei ka puta i ana kahui Maori a Reipa mo tenei kaupapa. He aha te take kei reira tonu era Maori e noho ana? Me ki... i tae ki te wa i tera wa ki whakaara ki tera whakaaro ki te tautoko i a Tariana, i te mea ko tana ko te whakawhiti ka puta i te Reipa, ko puta kei hea? (SOMBRE MUSIC) - Shrek the sheep getting a full prime ministerial welcome at Parliament today. While Helen Clark happy to roll out the welcome mat for the world-famous merino, when it came to the hikoi, also heading for Parliament steps, it was more a matter of bah humbug! - What it is is the same old faces ` the Ken Mairs, the Harawira families, the Annette Sykes, the haters and wreckers, the people who destroy Waitangi every year now wanting to do a Waitangi in every town in New Zealand on the way to Wellington, where they'll do a Waitangi on the front steps of Parliament. Is this not what New Zealand has got absolutely sick and tired of? - Of course, as you know, we know, when you start challenging your leadership, etc. like that, and, you know` and we have a very strong support base beside us, well, that's only going to encourage more of our people and our community to say, 'Oh, right, you want to take on them? 'That's what you want to call them? 'We're going to be there with them to challenge you on this kaupapa. - Why would you have the time to go and meet Shrek the sheep but you wouldn't take the time to talk to a group of New Zealanders concerned about what's happening? - I thought Shrek was good company. - While this was happening, people arrived by busload to Otaki, ready to enter the capital. - We got invited down to a meeting of all of the police inspectors from all around the country who'd been called into Wellington. Found out where the police were going to send us, and it was backstreet shit, eh. As off-the-road as possible. So when we went up to see the inspectors... 'Bling, bling, bling, bling, bling, bling!' all around the room. Me and a couple of others. They said, 'Well, we have this organised.' And they had it all up on the whiteboard. 'And we'll be going here, and we'll be going here, and we'll be going here.' Waited until they finished and said, 'We're not gonna do any of that, mate.' They said 'What?' I said, 'No, we're not gonna gather in that bloody pig hole that you got us gathering in. No way. 'I've got kaumatua and kuia. I've got kids. I've got all kinds of people. 'We will gather where it's safe. 'We're going to gather in the car park and out the front and underneath the shelter of Te Papa. 'That's where we're gonna gather.' All of these inspectors started looking at me. I says, 'Hey, look, I didn't know whether you fullas know this, 'but I've already cleared this with Wally Haumaha.' (CHUCKLES) And all these cops turned to look at Wally, because I hadn't, of course. And Wally goes, 'Yes, yes, we've already discussed this.' (LAUGHS) And so they all had to` they all had to cave, eh. What are you gonna do when 50,000 turn up? - This is the last leg of our hikoi in when we started from the north 10 days ago. And I have to say that we've been incident free right up into this point. - Why are you not at school? - My teacher says that I'm allowed here. And I'm just here with my mum and Maori Women's Welfare League. - I remember 20 years ago being here, and this place was packed. Standing room only with flags, banners, people chanting. There was power in the movement, and there was definitely a feeling of injustice, but I never felt unsafe. And that's something that I'll always remember, is there was this wairua. Uh... Kotahitanga. (CHEERING, CONCH BELLOWS) - Rawe. Yeah. - Yeah, ko kotahi te wairua. He maha nga ropu a iwi a hapu i tae ` a tinana a kakahu rereke. (ALL CHANT) (UPLIFTING MUSIC) - ALL: One, two, three, four! - Why did Turia cross the floor? - Why did Turia cross the floor? - Seabed! - Foreshore! - Seabed! - Foreshore! - You know, Helen Clark said she was going to come out and talk to you. Can she ignore this? - I think the prime minister's decision to ignore the people is never a good decision. This is the people's voice. What else do you want? What part of 'no' don't they understand? (CHANTING) - A toia mai! - I te waka! - Ki te urunga! - Te waka! - If I was the government, I'd take note. Shit, that's enough people to show you that people didn't like what you were planning. (GROUP PERFORM HAKA) (STIRRING ORCHESTRAL MUSIC) - What's happened today ` it was all quite unnecessary, but since it has happened, listen to it. It's just amazing. Kotahitanga of the tribes of New Zealand is undeniable here. - I ask all of you bureaucrats watching today, how can you allow this to happen in the 21st century? - In only a few months, these Maori leaders, the 'haters and wreckers', were able to coordinate the biggest social movement this country has seen safely and peacefully. - But you're in awe, eh? You know, when you see thousands of our people, tens of thousands of our people, you think, wow. You know? Uh, it's wonderful in one sense, but sad in another sense that people are not seeing the obvious ` that you just can't behave and do this towards us ` thieve our lands. (ALL CHANT IN TE REO MAORI) - HONE: It was huge. For me, it's always about helping our people believe that they can be anything they want to be. You know, that they don't have to sit back in and be told what to do, that if they don't like it, they should stand up. - E mahara ana au ki taua ra. Pango katoa te papa nei. Haruru pai te papa nei konei ke te mahi a te tangata. And I remember Labour MPs sitting here ` Parekura, John Tamihere, etc. and it was here, very poetically, that buckets of sand were placed at their feet. And I also remember the guy who climbed the Seddon statue here and put a Tino Rangatiratanga flag in his hands. The whole place just erupted. (CHEERING, APPLAUSE) As thousands arrived at her doorstep, the prime minister and her ministers watched from above. - You were never tempted to head out there yourself today? - No. - Are you upset that so many Maori are here opposing your policies today? - People are exercising their rights in a free and open society, and I applaud that. - JOHN: There was talk of us boycotting, just not going down. Well, that ain't our style. We're obliged to go down there and face our people. Mm. So that's what we did. Of course it fazes you. The key is how resilient you are to these sorts of confrontations. - The weight of people's emotions was palpable. That's what you could feel, because you had young and old turn up to Parliament, and you knew yourself that, looking out there, this is something momentous. - MAN OVER LOUDSPEAKER: E te iwi kia mau, kia mau, kia mau. - (SPITS) - Anei te korero. - Anei te whakautu. (SPITS) Ana! (CROWD EXCLAIMS) Anei! Ana! Ko tuha whakamutunga. Pokokohua ma! (EXCLAIMS) (CROWD CHANTS) - We need heroes, live ones. Our young people need to see that, you know, somebody is going to stand up for what's right rather than just roll over with the punches. - On that day, she was able to see that the whole of Maoridom was with her in faith. - MAN OVER LOUDSPEAKER: It is not acceptable to compare our people to sheep. - WOMAN: Tariana! - CHUCKLES: Oh! - Tariana! - I was ashamed of myself ` for going with Labour, for believing... at that time, our people were pro-Labour. And I felt really ashamed of myself that... I never saw the ngangara amongst them. - It's about time we realised they are exactly the same as National! No different! It's about time we started looking to a new future. We have to look to people like Tariana, who had the courage to say to these people in here, 'You can't push me around. I have my people behind me.' (CHEERING) To people like Nanaia who's able to say, 'Tainui stands behind me. I don't need my mana from here.' (CHEERING) I just wish some of the brothers had the balls to do something like that. (LAUGHTER) (CONCH BELLOWS) So you go back and you think about how we're going to address this issue. Let the foreshore seabed issue be the way in which we've been able to come together. Let our independent future be the way in which we move past it. (PENSIVE MUSIC) - I te tua ono o Haratua, kotahi ra i muri te tatunga o te hikoi ki te whare Paremata, ka uru te pire ki te whare. - So this is an issue which has challenged our sense of nationhood and our ability to encompass all the interests in our country. - And we said to ourselves, 'No, we're not gonna waka-jump, 'because we will betray and desert our people in time of need.' - If the Foreshore and Seabed bill is a glimpse of how Maori customary property rights are to be treated by the government, then we will see the tide of Maori opinion turn as sure as night becomes day. To ensure that the government is accountable, I will not resign, and the government will need to work hard to retain the confidence of my electorate and strengthen their relationship with Tainui waka. - Readings from the speeches made that day show quite clearly where people stood on the issue. Nanaia Mahuta opposed the bill, whereas Mira Ririnui supported the bill, but gave his five minutes of speech time to Tariana Turia so that she could deliver a speech. It was a right taken away from her when she became an independent Member of Parliament. - One vote opposed. (APPLAUSE) - One vote opposed. - The ayes are 65; the nos are 55. The bill will be read a first time. - Despite a hikoi of tens of thousands of people showing their opposition to the bill, on the 18th of November, it passed its third reading ` 65 to 53. Nanaia Mahuta, who voted against the bill in its first two readings, voted for it in the third. - When Tariana crossed the floor to leave the party, which, actually on the back of the hikoi, then led to the establishment of the Maori Party, I was in another position where I said, 'Well, do I do that?' Which I didn't think that was the way, uh, that I should go. The prospect of a Maori party resolving what was immediately in front of us, I felt, was too distant at the time. So I stayed, and I used the process, and I used the process the best way I knew how ` to buffer, um, the negative impact that I could see could be a real, um, harmful outcome for my own electorate. So I just kind of brought everything close and brought it home. - Ko tetahi o nga hua o te hikoi ko te aranga mai o te Pati Maori he mea arahi Tariana Turia. I tau poti whai muri mai, ka riro i a ratou nga turu e wha. Ka mutu te whainga matua he whakakore i te pire Takutai Moana. - CHANTS: # Ko te kawanatanga, # te ringa katau # utu a raupatu! # Te ringa Maui, # tahae takutai moana e! # The right hand pays out for last century's confiscations, but the left hand steals more land. - I'm here, inspired by those within the Maori activist and protest movement who dared to challenge. I'm here because our people have used the law and every other possible avenue to express our reality and live as Maori. Our tipuna have died in the defence of what was theirs. The blood soaks the land. - I have hope because I refused to accept defeat. I have hope because, even by coming to this house, I know I carry the hopes and expectations of Maoridom to achieve change, and I know that they will be there when the call comes to act. - It is my party's intention to seek this House's support for our private member's bill to repeal this act. - In 2011, the Maori Party did in fact the repeal of the Foreshore and Seabed Act. It was replaced by the Marine and Coastal Areas Act, which all parties agree still fails to deal with the underlying issues ` who owns the foreshore and seabed. (HORNS BLARE, PEOPLE EXCLAIM) History is tides. You think you've moved on; then you're swept back. In 2023, our election campaign was full of language that reminded me of that election back in 2005. (GROUP CHANT IN TE REO MAORI) And now the Maori Health Authority ` gone. Nga ingoa o Maori nga tari o te kawanatanga a whakahekea ki raro iho putua. And with the Treaty Principles bill, is the Treaty itself even under attack? And the Maori response to this? Well, we've done exactly what we did 20 years ago ` come together. - Whoever said we're getting rid of the Treaty of Waitangi? Tell me. No, we didn't. (SCATTERED SHOUTING FROM CROWD) You tell me whoever said we're getting rid of the Treaty of Waitangi? So stop the crap! Stop the nonsense! Stop the hysteria! Some of us were out there before you were born fighting for Maori land rights! Let me tell you, sunshine, it's not the way it's going to be in 2040. - CROWD CHANTS: E noho! E noho! - So, ladies and gentlemen, we're off now. - E noho! E noho! - Kia ora tatou. - E noho! E noho! - These debates about our identity... (CROWD SINGS WAIATA) ...and who we are as a nation and the rights of every single person, whether they've been here for a thousand years... (SINGING CONTINUES) ...or whether they just got here` whether they just got here on an aeroplane this morning, those debates will continue. (SINGING CONTINUES) Our Treaty will have partnership, not just for some people, but for all. - There's no surprise to me in regard to how some individuals, call 'em politicians, uh, feel emboldened to race bait. You scratch the surface of a racist ` bang. And how do you do that? You challenge, uh, their being in regard to the reliance on a corrupt system. It's always been there. I mean, people say, 'Oh, gosh, I'm surprised that, you know`' I'm not surprised. - One of the things that strikes me is, 20 years ago, there was anti-Maori rhetoric. There were scare tactics essentially to appease... the right. And we're seeing that again almost 20 years later. And it's really frustrating because I thought we had grown a lot more as a country. That's why I really wanted to be here at Waitangi ` the feel that unity again. And you can feel it. It's electric. And it's a wairua that I haven't felt since I was a 10-year-old boy... on Lambton Quay walking with thousands of other Maori. (BELL TOLLS, WAHINE PERFORMS KARANGA) Hei ta etahi, i huakore te hikoi. Engari moku ake, me te huhu o toku reanga, na tenei kaupapa i pupu ake ai te marama ki nga take torangapu, te hiahia ki te tohe, te hiahia ki te wero i te Karauna. It saw the rise of a new generation of political leaders. I see many of my generation who are now taking this fight into their own hands. We are more aware than ever. We are better equipped with our language and our tikanga. We understand the system. In every barrier we're met with, there's another opportunity for us to grow stronger. - We have a responsibility to challenge the system. If we believe in the health and well-being of our environment and the health and well-being of our future generations, and we do believe that. - Every generation has their own world to live in. In Nga Tamatoa days... there was nobody you could rely on to carry that. In the Hikoi Takutai` On the day of the Land March, the same thing was of that time. You know, Bastion Point, Raglan, and other big occupations ` they were of the time. Ours was te Takutai Moana. I mean, the next generation might be the referendum. Who knows? But they will know that there's a history within themselves and within their people to not accept it just because somebody tells you it must be so. - We will not allow... We will not allow them to determine what the future of our tamariki and rangatahi should be. No way. That is something that would... probably press the wrong buttons in me. Mm. (POIGNANT STRING MUSIC) Captions by Jessie Puru. Captions were made with the support of NZ On Air.