“Here’s the rub if you are Māori—we’re not indigenous,” Mr. Peters said.

New Zealand First leader Winston Peters speaks during a debate in Auckland, New Zealand, on Oct. 1, 2020. (Fiona Goodall/Getty Images)

By Rebecca Zhu

The leader of the New Zealand First Party Winston Peters has stood by his statement that Māori are not Indigenous despite media backlash and condemnation by leaders from across the political spectrum.

Mr. Peters made the statement during a public meeting on Sept. 10 discussing the party’s election policy to pull New Zealand out of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP).

“Here’s the rub if you are Māori—we’re not indigenous,” Mr. Peters, who is of Māori and Scottish descent, said at the meeting.

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“We come from Hawai-iki. Where’s our Hawai-iki? We think it is in the Cook Islands. We think it’s in Rarotonga ... but we’re not from here. And we go back 5,000 years, we came with our DNA from China. Not like 55,000 years in Australia.”

He added that it was not possible to be indigenous in two countries at the same time.

Mr. Peters has doubled down on the statement in a series of follow-up interviews and public appearances.