New Zealand’s parliament was briefly suspended on Thursday after Maori members staged a haka to disrupt the vote on a contentious bill that would reinterpret a 184-year-old treaty between the British and Indigenous Maori.

A hīkoi (protest march) spanning the entirety of New Zealand's north island rallying against the government's constitutionally consequential 'Treaty Principles Bill' began Monday from Cape Reinga,

As parliamentarians gathered for a preliminary vote on the bill on Thursday, Te Pāti Māori MPs physically tore a copy of the bill, stood and began a haka.