Presented by the Labour government, the bill would strip Maori of their right to file claims registering customary ownership of areas of the foreshore and seabed. Marchers explained that the bill would threaten the livelihood of some and the fishing rights of others. For tens of thousands of Maori, they said, it represents a new government confiscation of land, waters, resources, and national rights.

Maori, an oppressed nationality, are the indigenous people of New Zealand, numbering around 15 percent of the total population of 4 million. They are also a key part of the industrial working class and its unions, and of broader layers of working people in town and country.

The May 5 protest was the culmination of a national march—or hikoi—that set out from the far north of the North Island April 22. Marches and rallies, often drawing thousands, were held in cities and towns along the way. A second hikoi, departing May 3, traveled down the North Island’s east coast, converging with the first in Wellington, the capital city, two days later.

The Wellington march was punctuated by the banners of tribes from every part of the country. In the lead was the white flag and carved marker pole, or pouwhenua, from the 1975 Maori land march, which heralded an upsurge in struggles by Maori against discrimination and for national rights.

With songs and traditional chants in Maori, the protest had an air of affirmation and celebration of the gains in language, culture, and national pride Maori have won in recent decades.

Marchers came from major cities and smaller towns, and included many from isolated rural areas. There were many elders, including a number in wheelchairs or on crutches. These working people mingled alongside politicians, tribal leaders, professionals, and businesspeople, some with an interest in commercial development of the seabed and foreshore.

Car convoys from the two hikoi, each numbering 100 vehicles, made an impressive sight as they drove into the city on the morning of May 5. Bus after bus brought people from tribes around the country, some arriving at dawn at the assembly point. Later in the day feeder marches rolled in from nearby Victoria University and the Wellington suburb of Newtown.

A paua fisherman from Kaikoura in the South Island told Militant reporters that his Ngai Tahu tribe had organized three busloads of people to travel to Wellington. From the opposite direction, five carriage-loads of marchers belonging to the Tainui tribe came down by train from Auckland and the Waikato region.

A contingent of students from a Maori-language high school—or kura kaupapa—that had suspended classes to join in, formed one of the many groups of students participating.

Wayne Marumaru, a meat worker from Taranaki, told the New Zealand Herald that he had taken five days’ leave to be on the hikoi. “I can’t remember the last time I took annual leave,” he said. “I work six days a week and sometimes up to 70 hours, but my wairua [spirit] told me I should be here.”

Rae Morrison, who traveled down to Wellington from the small town of Taneatua, told the Militant, “They say it’s the biggest gathering of Maori since World War II, and I can well believe it. The people have never been so united.”

Marchers expressed anger at Prime Minister Helen Clark’s statement that the hikoi was a small group of “haters and wreckers.” Clark refused to meet the march at parliament, sending the deputy prime minister in her place, along with Maori Members of Parliament from the Labour Party.

Refuting Clark’s comments, participants described how Maori communities in towns along the route of the hikoi had mobilized people, skills, and resources to house and feed—with sit-down dinners and packed lunches—hundreds, and in some cases thousands, of marchers and supporters. Many hikoi participants were recruited through tribal organizations, using tribal radio stations and internet sites as well as meetings and word of mouth.  
 
Government land-grab
Placards saying “Foreshore legislation is confiscation” and “Governments past and present have legalized theft of Maori land” expressed the views of most marchers toward the new legislation.

The bill represents the government’s reaction to a decision by the Court of Appeals in June 2003 in favor of a suit by eight Maori tribes. The Maori leaders sought clearance to ask the Maori Land Court to grant them freehold title to areas of the foreshore and seabed in the Nelson-Marlborough area, to be used for fish and shellfish farming ventures. The tribes charged the local government with discrimination after having applications for marine farming licenses repeatedly turned down.

The foreshore is defined as the area of beach between the high and low water marks.

The Court of Appeal ruling challenged the longstanding assumption that the government owned all such areas not in private hands. Tribal leaders point out that ownership of these areas has never been ceded by Maori. They therefore believe that, under the separate laws that govern Maori land, they have a right to lodge claims to customary areas of foreshore and seabed.

The new bill would extinguish this right, placing the foreshore and seabed under government ownership. The one-third of foreshore currently under freehold title, which is mainly owned by non-Maori, would be exempt.

The legislation offers no compensation for this loss of legal redress. It would allow Maori very limited rights to continue with tribal activities, provided they have been carried on uninterruptedly and in a wholly traditional manner since 1840.

Te Ope Mana A Tai, a tribal group spearheading opposition to the bill and the restrictions on commercial enterprise, pointed out in a leaflet distributed at the march that “other users of the foreshore and seabed over the last 164 years have not been limited to 1840s technology in development of ports and marine farms.”  
 
Land at center of struggle
For 150 years, the question of title to and use of land has been at the center of the Maori struggle against dispossession and discrimination. In 1860 the colonial settler government, established by London, stated that 21 million acres remained in tribal hands—less than a third of the country. Today Maori own around 3 million acres.

Separate legislation and the Maori Land Court have governed ownership of Maori land since 1865. Historically these have been used to successively rob Maori of their lands. It is this same legislation that the government is now denying Maori the right to use to claim areas of foreshore and seabed.

While for some on the march, access to the foreshore and seabed opens the possibility of business ventures, for others it means potential jobs in marine farming or other activities. For example, at the small community of Potaka on the North Island’s east coast, local Maori have built and launched their own aquaculture center.

Ngamano Ratana, who lives near Wanganui, told the Militant, “It’s not only the foreshore. It’s the riverbeds too. It affects access to seafood, shellfish, eeling—a natural resource our people turn to feed themselves for big gatherings, and for their families. When I’ve had hard times, I’ve often gone and accessed these natural resources because I couldn’t afford food at the shop.”

Some expressed concern that if the government took over the foreshore and seabed it could be privatized, like government-owned concerns in the past.

The march took place against the backdrop of the growing capitalist crisis, and the rulers’ attacks on working people, which have a disproportionate impact on working people who are Maori.

In recent months Clark has said that her government will review affirmative action programs and other measures won by Maori. The statement followed a storm of propaganda against so-called special rights for Maori, led by opposition National Party leader Donald Brash.

On May 6, in front of a packed public gallery and with many protesters outside, the bill passed its first reading. Two of Labour’s seven Maori MPs voted against it. One of them, Tariana Turia, a member of the Cabinet, earlier announced that she will resign May 17, and will contest the resulting by-election.

Some of the forces involved in organizing the march are looking to rapidly form a new Maori political party to capitalize on Maori discontent with Labour, which has traditionally enjoyed Maori support.  
 
 
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