The people were speaking, Seymour couldn’t hear them

Analysis: The last time people covered every inch of Parliament grounds the police were called in.
Paving stones were ripped up and hurled at law enforcement, the playground on the Parliament lawn was burnt down, and the Speaker of the House used sprinklers and blaring music to deter protesters.
The Parliament occupation was an ugly chapter of New Zealand’s history; an example of what can happen when communities splinter, people feel isolated and scared, and anger becomes the dominant emotion.
Back in the summer of 2022, the world watched New Zealand for all the wrong reasons.
On Tuesday, the world was watching again. But this time it was different.
On Tuesday, tens of thousands of people marched to Parliament to protest the Treaty Principles Bill, as well as a raft of other policies that look set to impact on rights and obligations enshrined by Te Tiriti o Waitangi.
Hīkoi mō Te Tiriti – now thought to be the largest Parliament protest in history – remained peaceful.
The tikanga was set down at the start of the day by hīkoi organiser Eru Kapa-Kingi: “Do things that your tupuna would be proud of today and do things that your mokopuna will be proud of one day.”
Some of those mokopuna led the hīkoi to Parliament, while the littlest ones were pulled behind in buggies and pushchairs, or carried in front packs.
“Lead by tupuna; driven by mokopuna,” one sign read.
Those tamariki and rangatahi covered Parliament grounds. Some climbed the ageing pohutukawa trees, and perched on concrete posts. Others spilled out into the footpaths surrounding Parliament, picnicking in the streets with their whānau.
Many of those who marched gave simple reasons for being there: “It’s in my blood”; “For my mokopuna”; “Because it’s the right thing to do”.
When it came time for politicians to meet the crowd, Labour leader Chris Hipkins walked to the barrier separating Parliament’s forecourt from the hīkoi. There he stood for two hours. Listening.
By the time Te Pāti Māori MP Hana-Rāwhiti Maipi-Clarke addressed the tens of thousands gathered at Parliament, millions of people around the world knew her face.
A week earlier, Maipi-Clarke performed the Ngāti Toa haka Ka Mate in the House of Representatives in response to the first reading of the bill – something those at the hīkoi believed was an appropriate way to challenge the legislation.
The video was shared globally by international media, celebrities and indigenous activists.
“The world is watching us here,” Hana-Rāwhiti Maipi-Clarke told the crowd gathered at Parliament on Tuesday.
“Because we haka, because we have our reo, and because we have our culture.”
Te Pāti Māori co-leader Rawiri Waititi used his moment at the microphone to rally the troops.
“Where to from here? Yes tino rangatiratanga is ours but we have to have a kāwanatanga strategy. Get on the Māori roll. Each and everyone has a responsibility to our mokopuna to turn up and ensure we don’t have a fascist government like we do today.”
Waititi referred to the haka in Parliament last week against the Act Party’s Treaty Principles Bill that was shared around the world. “Thanks to Hana, the whole world is watching.”
Then he spoke about “a heated confrontation” with David Seymour, when he told the Act Party leader he wasn’t welcome to address the hīkoi. “You’re goddamn right I told you not to come!”
Meanwhile, Seymour came out of Parliament to “face the hīkoi”. 
The architect of the Treaty Principles Bill stayed close to the buildings, flanked by his Act Party colleagues. A row of police officers stood between Seymour and the crowd.
As he had not been offered a speaking slot, Seymour instead used his time on Parliament’s forecourt to shoot a video for social media, which he shared on Tuesday afternoon.
“This is a message that I had hoped to deliver to the people who marched so far but unfortunately are not prepared to have me speak and address them,” he said.
“I suspect that’s because if they had to hear from the real me rather than the caricature that they’ve constructed they would suddenly be disappointed.”
Seymour said he wanted to have a discussion about what the Treaty “really means”. “Is it a contract between two collectives defined by ancestry, or something that gives equal rights for all to flourish?”
Seymour later told journalists that while it was “quite difficult to hear a lot of what was being said”, he still thought it was important to go out to the forecourt.
“It was useful to be out there to listen,” he said. Seymour then said: “I would have liked to have gone out and spoken.”
NZ First’s Shane Jones perched on the edge of a garden, looking out over the people and listening. Jones has not been shy in criticising Te Pāti Māori and the hīkoi itself, but on Tuesday, he was silent.
National ministers Tama Potaka and Shane Reti, along with National backbench MPs, went onto the forecourt to speak with members of the crowd.
The Prime Minister did not meet the hīkoi.
While protesters packed up outside, inside, Christopher Luxon reiterated the National Party position: “We won’t be supporting the bill beyond second reading, and therefore it won’t become law.”
He said he considered meeting the hīkoi, but many of those who marched to his doorstep were affiliated with Te Pāti Māori. And like Seymour, he did not receive an invitation to speak.
Meanwhile, inside a subdued House with an empty public gallery, Luxon referred to the delegation of National MPs who went out onto the forecourt, then said he met with iwi leaders “up and down the country and will continue to do so”.
Former Labour Prime Minister Helen Clark did not meet the foreshore and seabed hīkoi at Parliament in 2004.
There was a long-lasting breakdown in the relationship with Māori as a result of the legislation and how Clark’s Labour government handled it.
While Seymour was the focus of the day, tangata whenua and tangata Tiriti are watching Luxon. They will remember how the Prime Minister handles the Treaty Principles Bill.