Rawiri Waititi ejected from Parliament for not wearing a tie - News Article

 In this article written by RNZ is about Rawiri Waititi getting ejected from the Parliament because he was wearing a Maori taonga around his neck and not a proper business tie. The main people in this article are Rawiri Waititi and Trevor Mallard. Rawiri Waititi is a man that is a co-leader from the Maori Party. Rawiri and Trevor also argued about the disagreements between wearing different cultural ties. 

The key event from this article is about Rawiri Waititi. Last year in 2020 some people in the Parliament agreed that there should not be any cultural ties in the debating chamber, and some disagreed. This event took place in Wellington at the Beehive, in the New Zealand Parliament Building. This event took place on January 1st 2021. 

In this news article Rawiri Waititi was kicked out of the Parliament and to never be seen in the debating chamber again. Rawiri said "Our people have worn these types of ties for generations, thousands of years. And it's time that Parliament, which was consented by my ancestors through Te Tiriti o Waitangi, recognised our right and freedom to express our own cultural identity, in a place that's supposed to be a place for democracy," 

Trevor Mallard and Rawiri Waititi argued in the debating chamber. This event took place because the Parliament wanted to discuss new laws around New Zealand. The day before the meeting a person asked Rawiri “What tie are you going to wear tomorrow?” Rawiri replied “You’ll have to wait until tomorrow.” 

In my own opinion I think that they should allow wearing any ties, like in the meeting there was a Mexican guy whose name is Ricardo Menendez and he said

“I have worn this tie in a lot of meetings and I have never been told to take it off and wear a business tie”. At that moment I straight away thought that Speaker Trevor Mallard was kind of being racist, about Rawiri Waititi having to wear a Maori tie around his neck. In my mind I thought he was being kind of racist because Rawiri Waititi was wearing a pounamu around his neck, but according to the Parliament laws you have to wear a business tie. That’s why they should allow wearing any ties.

Written by Krystal. Read more of her blogs at Krystal's Blog

Here are some activities' we did to compare the necktie and the pounamu from Xavier, Maraia and Krystal