By Lucy Craymer and Lewis Jackson WELLINGTON (Reuters) -Tens of thousands of New Zealanders rallied before parliament on Tuesday in one of the country's largest ever protests to oppose a bill that opponents say seeks to dilute the rights of Maori and threatens to set race relations back decades.

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.

Booming Indigenous Maori "haka" chants rang out across New Zealand's capital on Tuesday, as thousands rallied against a conservative proposal accused of stoking racial divisions. Former conservative prime minister Jenny Shipley said the proposal threatened to "divide New Zealand in a way that I haven't lived through in my adult life".

Protesters oppose a bill drafted by a minor coalition party that aims to redefine a founding treaty of the country dating back to 1840.

A post on X claims that the first reading of a bill during a Parliamentary session in New Zealand was cancelled after Māori tribal representatives started doing a traditional Haka dance. Verdict: False The Māori’s delayed the bill’s first reading,

A video of the youngest MP of New Zealand’s Parliament, Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke, has been going viral on social media. In the video, Clarke is seen leading a powerful traditional dance called Maori haka.