By Lucy Craymer and Lewis Jackson WELLINGTON (Reuters) -Tens of thousands of New Zealanders rallied before parliament on Tuesday in one of the country's largest ever protests to oppose a bill that opponents say seeks to dilute the rights of Maori and threatens to set race relations back decades.

Thousands gathered in, New Zealand, in a protest that doubled as a celebration of Maori identity and language. The march opposed a controversial bill affecting the historic Treaty of Waitangi. Protesters of all backgrounds demonstrated solidarity in the face of attempts to reshape Indigenous rights.

Tens of thousands of New Zealanders rallied in front of parliament on Tuesday in one of the country’s largest-ever protests to oppose a bill, which opponents say seeks to dilute the rights of Maori and threatens to set race relations back decades.

As tens of thousands of marchers thronged the streets in New Zealand’s capital Wellington, the column of people, flags aloft, had the air of a festival or a parade rather than a protest.

A nine-day march by Maori and their supporters culminated in a massive protest in Wellington on November 19, 2024, against the Treaty Principles Bill. The bill seeks to reinterpret the 1840 Treaty of Waitangi,

Thousands of people are marching the length of New Zealand in protest of a proposed law that would redefine the country’s founding agreement between Indigenous Māori and the British Crown.

Tens of thousands of people marched on New Zealand's parliament to oppose a bill that would reinterpret a 184-year-old treaty signed between the British and Indigenous Maori.

The Treaty Principles bill argues that New Zealand should reinterpret and legally define the principles of the 1840 Treaty of Waitangi, a document seen as fundamental to the country’s race relations.

Booming Indigenous Maori "haka" chants rang out across New Zealand's capital on Tuesday, as tens of thousands rallied against a conservative push to redefine the nation's founding treaty.