AUCKLAND, New Zealand – A Maori politician who says a tie is “a colonial tie” appeared in New Zealand’s Parliament without one this week. He was immediately expelled from the chamber, highlighting the tension between the vestiges of New Zealand’s colonial history and its indigenous culture.
The politician, Rawiri Waititi, co-leader of the center-left Maori Party, instead wore a hei-tiki, a traditional pendant, around his neck in the chamber on Tuesday. In a heated discussion about the official dress code with Trevor Mallard, the Mayor, Waititi said he was wearing “Maori business attire”.
As he left the room, Waititi said to Mallard, “It’s not about ties – it’s about cultural identity, mate.”
The entire episode, which resonated across New Zealand’s borders, prompted a subcommittee led by Mallard on Wednesday night to debate whether hei-tiki was a business suit and to consider abandoning the tie rule.
The nations of the region have struggled with indigenous issues for years, with some seeking to step back or repair the discriminatory policies encoded in their laws and traditions. Recognize that it is still struggling against a shameful past and mistreatment of indigenous peoples, Australia adjusted its national anthem last year to cut the word “young” from the phrase “because we are young and free” – a nod to the implicit exclusion of indigenous presence before the country’s founding. But the country still celebrates Australia Day, which celebrates the arrival of the British in 1788, while the Indians refer to it as Invasion Day.
New Zealand, for its part, has taken an assertive approach to getting involved with its colonial past and is one of the few countries with a treaty that governs the redistribution of indigenous lands. For decades, New Zealand’s indigenous peoples were prevented from honoring their traditions. But the Maori language – that New Zealand’s indigenous people were banned from speaking for a long time – is going through a kind of rebirth. Maori greetings are now common on public broadcasts, traffic signs are increasingly bilingual and many young Maori have enrolled in government-sponsored Maori language courses in an attempt to regain their heritage.
But archaic rules and customs are still embedded in many aspects of politics.
In 2016, Nanaia Mahuta was the first woman in Parliament to display a moko kauae, a sacred facial tattoo. When Ms. Mahuta became the country’s foreign minister last year, a conservative New Zealand author, Olivia Pierson, criticized the tattoo as inappropriate for a diplomat, calling it “the height of the ugly and uncivilized community” . Pierson’s comments were quickly condemned and his books were taken from at least one major New Zealand retailer.
The Maori represent about 21% of the 120 members of Parliament in five parties. With his cowboy hat and traditional face tattoo known as ta moko, Waititi – one of the two members of the Maori Party elected to Parliament last year – is a visible Maori presence in New Zealand’s halls of power. During his first speech to Parliament in December, he was asked to leave the chamber after he made a point of taking off his tie, saying, “Take the noose off my neck so I can sing my song.”
Under parliamentary rules, male politicians must wear a jacket and tie in the debate chamber. Mr. Waititi was warned that he could be expelled again if he continued to violate the dress code. After leaving the chamber on Tuesday, Mr. Waititi wrote on Twitter, “We made it known that this party will not be subjugated or assimilated to dated colonial rules.”
In an opinion article published on Wednesday in The New Zealand Herald, Waititi further launched his choice as a marker of resistance. “I took off the colonial tie as a sign that it continued to colonize, stifle and suppress” the rights of the Maori, he wrote. He did not immediately respond to an email asking for comment.
The requirement that men wear a tie in the chamber dates from New Zealand’s colonial rule in Britain. (The equivalent rule was effectively eliminated in Britain in 2017). Mallard, a member of the Labor Party of Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s government, was asked last year to abandon the rule. But after consulting with members, Mr. Mallard told local media that there was “very little support for change”, although he “personally hated” the practice.
Mrs. Ardern distanced herself from the tie dispute.
“It is not something I have a particularly strong opinion of,” she told reporters on Tuesday. “There are much more important issues. I’m sure this can be resolved. I don’t think most New Zealanders care about ties. “
The tie, which has its origins in the 17th century tie used before as a military suit, appears to be going out of fashion in many parts of the world. In 2006, the Men’s Dress Furnishings Association, a 60-year-old commercial group representing American tie makers, announced that it would be dissolving amid declining sales.
On Wednesday afternoon, a temporary truce appeared to be in effect when Mallard, the mayor, allowed Waititi to ask questions in Parliament without a tie around his neck.
Later that night, Mr. Mallard announced that the tie rule no longer existed.
“The committee did not reach consensus, but the majority of the committee was in favor of removing the tie requirement,” Mallard wrote in a statement. He concluded: “As a speaker, I am guided by the committee’s discussion and decision and, therefore, ties will no longer be considered necessary as part of ‘appropriate business attire'”.