New Zealand has long been known for its progressive policies, including efforts to correct and address historical wrongs against its indigenous Maori population.

But as Ali Rogan reports, a new right-wing government has reversed many of those policies and triggered mass protests in the Pacific nation.

They marched for nine days in the dark and through the rain,

carrying portraits of generations past,

and the flag symbolizing their right to self-determination.

Protesters from New Zealand's native Maori community walked alongside non-indigenous New Zealanders

to form what's thought to be the largest march in the nation's history.

The peaceful show of force culminated last month in the capital, Wellington, outside Parliament.

At the protest's heart, a bill proposing changes to New Zealand's founding document, the Treaty of Waitangi, or Teriti of Waitangi.

To safeguard, to honour, to protect the Treaty of Waitangi.

Why are we doing this? Why are we bringing a bill in when there is already a foundational document in there?

Signed in 1840, the treaty helped establish New Zealand's first colonial government and promised land and other rights to

Maori.

The Treaty of Waitangi certainly seen as being part of our constitution.

Dr. Carwin Jones, a Maori legal expert, says for more than a century, the government

mostly ignored the native rights set out in the treaty, pushing many Maori off their ancestral

lands and into poverty.

The column now seems to number in excess of 4,000 people.

But decades of activism has led to increase treaty recognition in New Zealand law and policy.

Today, the treaty is interpreted as a partnership between the government and its native people

who make up almost one-fifth of the country's population.

What that's meant in terms of the courts is that government has an obligation to act as a treaty partner,

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