69 The National government rejected the proposal. A hīkoi of 10,000 marched down Queen Street. Under pressure, the Crown replaced the proposal for three Māori seats by appointing a nine-member Independent Māori Statutory Board to advise the Auckland City Council. A mana whenua committee nominated the nine representatives to be approved by the Minister of Māori Affairs and Cabinet. Ihumātao (2019) and Operation Eight (2007) Protests began at Ihumātao in 2019 to regain land confiscated under the Land Settlement Act (1863), under the pretence that the Māori inhabitants were in rebellion (Waitangi Tribunal, 1985, pp. 17–18), were ultimately successful. Operation Eight and the use of the Terrorism Suppression Act (2002) by Police in the Ngāi Tūhoe settlement of Ruatoki and Taneātua would be later described by the Independent Police Conduct Authority (IPCA) as “unlawful, unjustified and unreasonable” (IPCA Report, May 2013). These events are discussed in more detail in chapter six. The role of protest The 1970s protests cried ‘not one more acre of Māori land’; 1980s protests said ‘Honour the Treaty’; 1990s protests advocated treaty justice; new millennium protests seek equality. All Māori protests oppose colonisation, racism and white supremacy. Future Māori protest faces many challenges. Māori rights have been contextualised as treaty rights, which detracts from a focus on sovereignty and structural institutionalised racism. To date there has not been a specific hīkoi against either. Some Māori leaders, and Māori and Pākehā Members of Parliament, regularly urge Māori to move on from grievance culture; few ask Pākehā to confront dominant white privilege and racism. The current renaissance also faces risk from the rise of a new educated Māori middle class that leaves most Māori as a marginalised underclass. Many tribes have low rates of participation; one survey found that 70 percent of Māori felt left out of tribal affairs (Horizon Research Poll, 2011). Human Rights Commission Many in the emerging Māori middle class are people of Māori descent, raised in non-Māori settings, who reactivated their identities as part of popular culture during the renaissance. International indigenous identity and tribal level identities rest on self-identity and reciprocal recognition by other Indigenous peoples and tribes. However, individual Māori identity rests solely on self-identification. If the inequalities that existed 50 years ago continued today, many may have chosen not to identify as Māori. Imbued with the advantages of Pākehā culture, and less at risk of primary discrimination by way of colour, some presume positions of leadership based on the same notions of superiority Pākehā have wielded over Māori for 170 years. The role of Indigenous protest is to remind those wielding settler-colonial racism and power that the oppressed First Nations will not go away, to break down entrenched boundaries, and to allow the exploration of new possibilities. Protest can be a potent force for positive change because it raises the consciousness of the disempowered, the awareness of the silent majority, and can enable people to examine their own prejudice. Radical protest takes courage and comes at personal cost because it challenges underlying assumptions in a way that can stimulate fear, revulsion, loathing and condemnation. This is constructive because such reactions force those in control to confront issues, without which there would be no debate, and without debate, there would be no change, and without change no progress, and without progress, neither justice nor resolution. The sacrifice of radical Māori activists of many different backgrounds, colours, genders, faiths, abled and disabled has been the single greatest contribution to Māori renaissance and transformative change in race relations in New Zealand society over the past 50 years. Treaty settlements, the revitalisation of te reo, the Principles of the treaty, and greater mutual tolerance by Pākehā and Māori are the fruits of their revolution.