New Zealand's Parliament was briefly suspended on Thursday after Maori members staged a haka to disrupt the vote on a contentious bill that would reinterpret a 184-year-old treaty between the British and Indigenous Maori.

New Zealand’s Parliament was temporarily suspended on Thursday as Māori lawmakers performed a haka, a traditional group dance, demonstrating their community’s anger and fear over a bill that aims to reinterpret the country’s founding treaty with its Indigenous people.

A vote in New Zealand’s parliament was suspended and two lawmakers ejected Thursday amid debate over a controversial proposed law redefining the country’s founding agreement between Indigenous Māori and the British Crown.