Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA  — Ka Lāhui Hawai'i, a Kanaka Maoli (native Hawaiian) group are standing in solidarity with Māori in what they describe as a "defense of Te Tiriti o Waitangi".

The 17-member Indigenous Hawaiian delegation were welcomed to Te Tii Marae on Tuesday, marking the beginning of their engagement alongside Māori communities and leaders.

The rōpū say they are present to "stand alongside Māori leadership, strengthen international solidarity, and affirm the deep genealogical and oceanic ties shared by Indigenous peoples of Moana Nui a Kanaloa".

Healani Sonoda-Pale, spokesperson for Ka Lāhui Hawaiʻi, said the world should know what is happening in Aotearoa.

"As Kanaka Maoli, we know what it means to have our lands, waters, and political future decided without us," Sonoda-Pale said.

"We came to Waitangi so the world can see that Māori are not standing alone, and that Indigenous peoples across the Pacific are watching, standing together, and demanding that Te Tiriti o Waitangi be fully honored."

Sonoda-Pale said their struggles are connected.

"And our collective liberation as Indigenous peoples of Oceania are bound to one another."

The delegation, which was formed in 1987 as a self-determination and self-governance initiative, has also issued a formal Statement of Solidarity calling on the international community to pay close attention to developments in Aotearoa.

"Since coming to power in 2023, the coalition government has passed, or sought to pass, a suite of laws that directly attack Māori rights to their land, language, culture and healthcare, as well as Te Tiriti o Waitangi itself," their statement said.

"Te Tiriti o Waitangi affirms the independence and rights of Māori to their lands, waters, and all that is held sacred, yet the history of Aotearoa since 1840 has been marked by repeated failures by the Crown to honor these founding promises."

The rōpū acknowledged Te Tiriti o Waitangi as Aotearoa, New Zealand's founding document.

"For Māori, however, Te Tiriti is not the source of their rights, but a reaffirmation of rights that exist because they are tangata whenua, the people of the land," they said.

"Their relationship to their whenua stretches back through the last millennium, during which time tikanga Māori operated, and continues to operate, as the first law of the land."

The rōpū say Crown laws "do not and cannot diminish rangatiratanga derived through whakapapa Māori, tikanga Māori, and their connections to their lands and waterways".

Ka Lāhui Hawai'i said as a people "facing similar harms" to their own lands and waters they reject any attempt to "weaken Māori rangatiratanga under the guise of 'good governance' or 'equality'".

"We stand with our Māori ʻohana and call for the full and faithful honouring of Te Tiriti o Waitangi."

Members of the delegation will be speaking at the Political Forum tent at Waitangi on Thursday.