Māori protest movement

The chiefs justified this by the treaty's guarantee of rangatiratanga (chieftainship),[3] 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[4] – the government arguing that the chiefs of Waikato and Taranaki were rebels against the Crown.

In 1971 the ceremonies were disrupted by the protest group Ngā Tamatoa[16] (The Young Warriors) who chanted and performed haka during speeches, and attempted to destroy the flag.

From the early twentieth century Āpirana Ngata and others made efforts to revive them, for example setting up intertribal kapa haka competitions and getting state funding for meeting houses.

A theatre play on this topic called The Haka Party Incident presented by the Auckland Festival in 2021 directed and written by Katie Wolfe.

Many protesters put their energies into Treaty claims and the management of settlements, but many also argued that the Tribunal was too underfunded and slow, and pointed out that because its recommendations were not binding the government could (and did) ignore it when it suited them.

The group accused the Museum of "perpetuating a lie long used by the government to trample Māori rights and enforce colonial rule on the land and its people."

The Tribunal found that Ngāti Whātua had been unjustly deprived of their ancestral land hence Bastion Point was returned to their ownership with compensation paid to the tribe by the Crown.

Symbolic acts have included attacking Victorian statuary, the America's Cup (1996)[28] and the lone pine on One Tree Hill (Auckland) and removing (1997)a Colin McCahon painting (subsequently returned) from the Lake Waikaremoana Visitor Centre.

Many protests were generated in response to the government's proposal to limit the monetary value of Treaty settlements to one billion dollars over 10 years, the so-called "fiscal envelope".

The government unveiled the fiscal envelope – its answer to settling Treaty of Waitangi grievances limiting the total amount that will be spent to one billion dollars.

The Crown held a series of consultation hui around the country, at which Māori vehemently rejected such a limitation in advance of the extent of claims being fully known.

[32] "We were forced to leave, and it shouldn't be lost on anybody that we upheld our dignity," protest leader Ken Mair told a press conference in Whanganui 18 May 1995 following the end of the occupation."

Bill Perry, a spokesperson for the protesters, explained to reporters who visited the occupation on 22 April 1995 that the land they are claiming has been set aside in a government controlled Landbank together with other property in the region.

The block of land sits atop a hill overlooking the town, in full view of the mine entrance with its coal conveyor leading to a power station.

Protesters told reporters who visited the occupation 29 April that the land is part of 1,200,000 acres (4,900 km2) confiscated by the government 132 years ago from the Tainui tribe.

[41][38] Between 2016 and 2018, SOUL unsuccessfully appealed against Fletcher Building's plans to develop the Oruarangi Bloc to the Environment Court, the New Zealand Parliament, and the Mayor of Auckland Phil Goff.

[53][54] In April 2021, the Auditor General invalidated the Government's purchase of Ihumātao was unlawful on the grounds that it had used money from the Land for Housing Fund against Treasury's advice.

[56] In 2003 the Court of Appeal ruled that Māori could seek customary title to areas of the New Zealand foreshore and seabed, overturning assumptions that such land automatically belonged to the Crown.

On 16 January 2005 during a pōwhiri (or greeting ceremony) which formed part of a Waitangi Tribunal hearing, Iti fired a shotgun into a New Zealand flag in close proximity to a large number of people, which he explained was an attempt to recreate the 1860s East Cape War: "We wanted them to feel the heat and smoke, and Tūhoe outrage and disgust at the way we have been treated for 200 years".

The matter was however raised in parliament, one opposition MP asking "why Tāme Iti can brandish a firearm and gloat about how he got away with threatening judges on the Waitangi Tribunal, without immediate arrest and prosecution".

Tāme Iti elected to give evidence in Māori (his native language), stating that he was following the Tūhoe custom of making noise with totara poles.

Iti attempted to sell the flag he shot on the TradeMe auction site to pay the fine and his legal costs, but the sale—a violation of proceeds of crime legislation—was withdrawn.

[57] Iti lodged an appeal, in which his lawyer, Annette Sykes, argued that Crown Law did not stretch to the ceremonial area in front of a Marae's Wharenui.

However Justices Hammond, O'Regan and Wilson found that his prosecutors failed to prove beyond reasonable doubt that Iti's actions caused "requisite harm", under Section 51 of the Arms Act.

[58][59] On Monday, 15 October 2007, several police raids were conducted across New Zealand in relation to the discovery of an alleged paramilitary training camp deep in the Urewera mountain range near the town of Ruatoki in the eastern Bay of Plenty.

About 300 police, including members of the Armed Offenders and anti-terror squads, were involved in the raids[60] in which four guns and 230 rounds of ammunition were seized and 17 people arrested, all but one of them charged with firearms offences.

[64] According to Prime Minister Helen Clark, one of the reasons police tried to lay charges under anti-terror legislation was because they could not use telephone interception evidence in prosecutions under the Arms Act.

[65] Activists that were arrested and raided are known supporters of Te Mana Motuhake o Tuhoe[66] and came from diverse networks of environmental, anarchist and Māori activism.

A number of people were arrested in the raids, including Māori activist Tame Iti, his nephews Rawiri Iti and Maraki Teepa, Māori anarchist Emily Bailey from Parihaka along with her twin brothers Ira and Rongomai, Rangi Kemara of Ngāti Maniapoto, Vietnam War veterans Tuhoe Francis Lambert and Moana Hemi Winitana also of Ngai Tuhoe, Radical Youth anarchist Omar Hamed.

After considerable debate in the public arena the group adopted various tactics to raise awareness of the issues, including lobbying Transit New Zealand[72] and Parliament,[73] submissions to the Human Rights Commission and holding an annual "Fly the Flag" competition,[74] to more direct protest actions including bungee jumping off[75] and traffic-jamming the Harbour Bridge, as well as flying the flag from the bridge.