January 14, 2025, marked the closing of public submissions to the Parliament of Aotearoa (New Zealand) regarding the Treaty Principles Bill, legislation aimed at redefining the Treaty of Waitangi, an agreement from year 1840 preserving and protecting Māori cultural rights while allowing British governance.
Though the Bill has not yet been killed, there has been strong opposition thereto by many in Aotearoa and across Pasifika.
Many will remember the unforgettable moment in late 2024 when Hana-Rāwhiti Maipi-Clark, the youngest Member of Parliament, aged 23, and a member of Te Pāti Māori, tore the Bill in half on the floor of the House before breaking into a haka that would reverberate around the world. This iconic haka happened against the backdrop of the Hīkoi, a 10-day march by the Māori people across Te Ika-a-Māui (the North Island) in opposition to the Bill.
These protests foreshadowed a time of protest in Hawai’i as January 17, 2025 marked 132-years since the US Government illegally overthrew the peaceful Kingdom of Hawaii.
Indeed, Hawaiians are no strangers to protest. While the Hīkoi was occurring across the Pacific, another march was underway at the same time 4,000 miles away on Moku o Keawe (Big Island). This march by Kānaka (Hawaiians), called the `Aha Pule `Āina Holo, is a march of celebration for Lono, an akua (god) associated with peace, fertility, and rejuvenation.
While these two events, the Hīkoi, a march of protest, and the `Āina Holo, a celebration of peace, may seem antithetical, Māori and Kānaka recognize them as being one and the same.
‘But how can an act of protest also be an act of peace?’ many might ask.
Hana-Rāwhiti’s haka provides a good example. She was criticized by the far-right government for such cultural expression during legislative assembly and even briefly suspended, but to Māori this was exactly the time for an emphatic expression of emotion through culture.
Tali Te Ohowawe Tawhai Feu’u (of Iwi Te Whānau a Apanui, Te Whakatōhea and of Taga, Palauli), a 16-year-old youth activist from Auckland said, "the haka is the best expression of our anger, our sorrow, and our pain; it is always an appropriate expression of Māori emotion."
The Hīkoi likewise was an act of peace. Following the final march on parliament in Pōneke (Wellington), with more than 100,000 in attendance, co-organizer Rawhitiroa Bosch (of Iwi Ngāti Kahu, Ngāpuhi ki Whangaroa) was told by a resident that the Hīkoi “brought peace to the city.”
Screenshot from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CL49WPetlbc uploaded by nzherald.co.nz, fair use
Paula MacEwan, working the Parliament barricade that day as a Māori Warden (a volunteer organization safeguarding Māori communities) described the Hīkoi marchers as “overwhelmingly peaceful.” “Peace is a discipline,” she said, “and we decided to let the elements do the talking for us,” as near hurricane-force winds battered parliament behind her.
Similarly, the `Āina Holo, also known as the Lono Run, was both an act of peace and of protest. The Run began in November of 2014, just as groundbreaking for the Thirty-Meter-Telescope (TMT) on Maunakea was to occur. This Mauna (mountain) is kapu for Kānaka, or sacred. Māori would call it ‘tapu.’
The run followed a ceremonial route around ka moku (the island). ‘Ai pono (healthy eating) was the standard. And communities around Big Island met the challenge, preparing meals from the 'āina for the procession as it passed.
On Moku o Keawe (the Big Island of Hawaii), Tahitians and Hawaiians hold their annual Lono Run while standing in solidarity with their "Māori cousins". Photo/Kapulei Flores
They sent their mo’opuna, their youth, to join the run as the lead runners carried the Ki’i (totem) called the Lono Kūkini Pule - the Ki’i of the Prayer Runners, to sacred sites along the route where ‘oli, hula, and pule were offered. Indeed, Lono himself was the kūkini (runner/messenger) of Kāne, one of the foremost akua of Hawai’i.
Lanakila Manguail, the organizer of the `Āina Holo and co-organizer of the Maunakea demonstrations in 2015 and 2020, describes the run as “medicine” for the people. He said it is a call, yearly, for Kānaka to “come back and stand for the 'āina.”
Māori have a proverb that echoes this call. It says, “you may forget your maunga [(mountain)], but your maunga will never forget you.”
Shortly after that first 2014 run, TMT construction was halted by the elements. In January and March of 2015, record-breaking snowstorms pelted the Mauna, halting construction. The 'āina had answered back.
Thereafter, Lanakila put out a riddle to his followers online: “the feathers of the hawk are rustling, yet there is no wind.” Five individuals understood the kaona (hidden meaning) and contacted Lanakila. They held the first of many meetings strategizing how best to protect Maunakea.
This meeting would kick off some of the most impactful and meaningful, peaceful protests of any indigenous people. In 2015, and then again in 2020, Kānaka, led by Lanakila and others, organized protests on the Mauna that have successfully stalled the installation to this day.
Most of the early protestors had been part of the Lono Run. They felt the kahea (the call), and they answered. “How could we not do something for the Mauna, after just running around the entire moku,” Lanakila said.
Some of the Hīkoi participants had also been protestors on the Mauna.
Kahua Julian, a kanaka from Maui, now teaching at a Te Reo (Māori language) immersion school in Napier, Aotearoa, travelled more than 300 kilometers to Pōneke for the final Hīkoi. Kahua had also been on the Mauna in 2020. He said the atmosphere of the two demonstrations, the Hikoi and the Mauna, were the same: “both were mālie, calm; aloha was the feeling.”
Indeed, in Hawaii we call it ‘aloha’; our cousins in Aotearoa have a similar word, ‘aroha’.
Hīkoi co-organizer, Rawhitiroa, had also been on Maunakea in 2020. He said the power of peace and ceremony in protest “is something I learned on the Mauna, actually.”
As both marches neared their conclusion, the Hīkoi on the steps of parliament, the `Āina Holo on the steps of Maunakea, Hana-Rāwhiti (recently named one of BBC’s top 100 women of the year) addressed the crowd in Pōneke.
She said: “the whole world is watching; and all of our indigenous brothers and sisters around Pasifika are watching.”
Indeed, though the mayor of Big Island recently acknowledged his support for, as he calls it, the “new version” of TMT, kia’i (guardians/protestors) for the Mauna iterate that there is no “new version” of TMT, only the same version which will again and again be met by well organized, peaceful resistance.
The only change, the kia’i note, is that TMT’s own reports show that China is pulling funding for the project and that the National Science Foundation is expected to follow suit.
Hana-Rāwhiti’s words ring true. The whole world is watching. All of Pasifika is watching.
“E hui ana nā moku (the islands will unite);
E kū ana ka paia (the walls will stand firm).” - Kahuna Kapihe.
