Thousands of marchers descended upon New Zealand’s largest city on Wednesday as part of the Hīkoi mō te Tiriti (March for the Treaty of Waitangi) to call for Māori (New Zealand’s indigenous people)

Nearly ten thousand people took to the streets in New Zealand to protest the introduction of the controversial Treaty Principles Bill in Parliament. Critics said the bill, if passed, could reverse the rights and other protection mechanisms for the Indigenous Māori people.

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.