Looking back: The day Māoridom descended on Parliament in protest at the foreshore and seabed legislation

OPINION

Twenty years ago, on May 5, 2004, thousands arrived in Wellington to protest against Labour’s proposed Foreshore and Seabed Act, which declared that the land in question was owned by the Crown. It became law in November of that year. Willie Jackson recalls the protest.

“How many people on that hīkoi bro, a couple of hundred?”

That’s what my old mate John Tamihere asked me 20 years ago as we gathered in our thousands at the Te Papa museum in Wellington to protest for Māori rights to be acknowledged in terms of access to the foreshore and seabed.

JT, who was a minister in the Helen Clark Labour Government, didn’t think for one second that the biggest Māori protest in history was about to hit him.

I remember saying to him, “Ah there’s a few more than a couple of hundred bro”, but he didn’t believe me – totally underestimating the anger that Māoridom had for the infamous legislation.

John Tamihere as Associate Māori Affairs minister and Cabinet colleague Trevor Mallard during a consultation hui on the foreshore and seabed. Photo / Richard Robinson

Māori laid down a challenge to the Government with the hīkoi that has now become immortalised in the annals of New Zealand history and the Māori Party was born from that protest.

Tariana Turia, the Te Tai Hauāuru Labour MP and future Māori Party co-leader, led the rejection of Labour’s foreshore and seabed plans, but sadly she was not supported by her colleagues.

Her actions and Labour’s response became the catalyst for the hīkoi that was led by Hone Harawira and united Te Ao Māori like no other protest had in Māori history.

The fascinating aspect of the hīkoi was that despite people trying to paint it as some sort of radical Harawira action, it was far from it.

Harawira and his team batted and laughed off allegations that he “hated Pākehā”. He led the hīkoi from the far north to Wellington peacefully and in conjunction with top Māori cop Wally Haumaha.

It really was a great example of leadership from Harawira, as no-one would have put any money on him being the leader who would be able to galvanise and unite Māori, given his notoriety for challenging Māori leadership and warring with the Pākehā establishment, particularly the police.

But unite Māoridom he and his team did , and Māori kuia and kaumātua joined young people, schools, kōhanga kapa haka teams, iwi, radicals, conservatives, business people, labourers, gang members and believe it or not even Labour Party members.

Former Māori Development Minister Willie Jackson. Photo / Supplied

Yes, Māori from every sector of Māori society as well as many Pākehā and other races who were infuriated with the Government joined together in protest.

I will never forget that day and sight of thousands and thousands of us marching on Parliament. I was running Radio Waatea at the time and covering the hīkoi for iwi radio, Tame Iti was my main Māori language broadcaster and the broadcast was going tremendously well until Iti broke ranks and decided to spit and insult JT and his parliamentary colleagues.

Although it was fantastic theatre it didn’t exactly fit our schedule!

I promptly relieved Iti of his duties for the day.

But what a day it was. I appeared on the Paul Holmes show on the night of the protest and told Holmes and his team that this was not a bunch of radicals protesting as they were alleging but a huge outpouring and display of unity from the Māori world.

I have never received as much support for an interview as I did that night and in the following days it was a reminder of how minimal our voices and views were back then.

Twenty years on, who would have believed that JT would go on to become the leader and president of the Māori Party and I would end up as a minister in Labour.

But then that’s politics, because you just never know what’s going to happen next.

Willie Jackson is a Labour list MP and former government minister.