Indigenous New Zealand Legislator Ejected From Chamber For Doing Haka

An indigenous New Zealand legislator was expelled from Parliament for performing a Maori haka to protest what he said were racist arguments, Swords Today reported Thursday.

It was the second time this year the New Zealand's Maori Party joint leader has been ejected from parliament.

The haka is a ceremonial dance or challenge accompanied by a chant. Rawiri Waititi's haka came after debate among lawmakers about the government's plans to establish a new Maori Health Authority as part of reforms to the health care system.

Waititi told the chamber he was forced to listen to a "constant barrage of insults" directed toward indigenous people. He said If that kind of attitude was acceptable, "then I find this House in disrepute," Voice of America reported.

Speaker Trevor Mallard told Waititi to sit down but instead he performed the haka, which prompted Mallard to order Waititi to leave the chamber.

Waititi left the chamber along with his party's other co-leader, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer.

"Over the past two weeks, there has been racist propaganda and rhetoric toward tangata whenua," CNN quoted Waititi as saying during his first point of order, using a Maori term that refers to New Zealand's indigenous peoples.

In February, Waititi was ordered to leave after refusing to wear a necktie. He argued the order suppressed indigenous culture. He won the battle against the requirement to wear a tie in Parliament, putting closure to a longstanding dress code for men he described as a "colonial noose."