New Zealand national day protesters demonstrate for Indigenous rights

Roughly 600 protesters on Tuesday marched to where New Zealand’s founding document was signed in the town of Waitangi, as official celebrations competed with protests against proposed government policies that threaten Indigenous rights.
Demonstrators were protesting New Zealand’s centre-right coalition’s promises to undo policies that promoted the official use of the Maori language and sought to enhance Indigenous living standards and rights.
The government has also said it will introduce, but was not committed to passing, a bill that would reinterpret the Treaty of Waitangi, the founding document that established British and Maori governance of New Zealand, though the English and Maori versions differ and there is debate over whether the Maori ceded sovereignty.
The protesters arrived carrying signs asking the treaty be honoured and many people were waving the national Maori flag or the United Tribes flag.