When Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke was elected to the Parliament of New Zealand, she became, at the age of 21, the youngest Member of Parliament in the country in 170 years, after James Stuart-Wortley, who was elected in 1853.
She represents the Maori Party and when she spoke in Parliament for the first time, she did so via a powerful speech in which she also did a haka, a Maori dance. With an equally powerful response from the spectators in the stands.
The clip where she performed the dance, in the middle of the members of the hall, has now gone viral and several world media have reported on the incident in recent days.
Maipi-Clarke was also emotional during the speech.
– We have arrived. We are here. We are sailing. We are navigating, just as our ancestors once did, in the world’s largest ocean, she said.
Watch the dance in the parliament in the clip above: