New Zealand's Natives Are Showing Their Support For Standing Rock In A Powerful Way

November 3, 2016

Many Māori, the native people of New Zealand, have taken to Facebook to stand in solidarity with the Standing Rock Sioux tribe, which is protesting the construction of a 1,172-mile oil pipeline the tribe believes will pollute its water supply and destroy culturally significant sites.

The Māori are showing their support by posting hakas to a Facebook group called "Haka with Standing Rock," which currently has over 11,000 members.

Since the page started just a few days ago, Māori of all ages have posted hakas, many of which have gone viral, like this one that has nearly 1 million views:

This video of an unidentified man doing a haka on the front line at Standing Rock in North Dakota has also gone viral, receiving over 600,000 views:

"We need to show them the power and strength of indigenous international unity," says Myron Dewey, a Native American who has been heavily involved with the protest.

Support is being sent in many forms.

Hundreds of thousands of people on Facebook are "checking in" to Standing Rock to help protect protesters from possibly being tracked by law enforcement.

A crowdfunding campaign to help with legal and camp costs that had a goal of $5,000 just broke $1 million.

Actor Mark Ruffalo delivered solar panels to the protest grounds so they had access to sustainable energy.

The message of unity across tribes has been sent loud and clear.