Part 5: Political Resurgance

(This is the 5th part of a 7 part series on my final term paper for Ethnics. Click here to start at part one)

Political Resurgence

In the early part of the twentieth century, the Maori began to slowly rebuild their numbers and settled into a socio-economically disadvantaged group. A major movement began after World War II towards urban areas from rural to pursue job and educational opportunities (Ausubel 222). Those who lived in cities struggled to adjust to the vastly different life of mortgages and contract agreements. Maori standards of living remained well below national averages with low health and living conditions. Many Maori volunteered to fight in World War II and came back with worldwide recognition of their deeds, providing them with confidence to demand equality with the returning Pakeha servicemen (Alves 38). Here we see the first signs of Maori demanding restitution from the government; in this case the first Labour government provided unemployment and pension benefits standards for everyone. As quoted in an article from the times, “the Maori cannot live without government aid and enterprise” (Hawthron 46). Continual pushes for government action in Maori affairs resulted in such enactments such as the Maori Welfare Act 1962, creating the Maori Council. The Council’s main adjective was to provide an overall Maori opinion and to help with ending discrimination but also looking to help in assimilation (Alves 39).

With the moves away from traditional, rural tribal settings, the Maori experienced a major loss in their language. Moving from a monolingual Maori setting to the monolingual English city settings led to language mixing and gradual dissipation and erosion of the Maori language. Also at this time the Maoris’ land holding had been shrunk to 3.1 million acres, a mere 5% of New Zealand. Efforts had been made to try and begin a process of restitution of land to the Maori, but the efforts were half-hearted and no real justice was served. With Maori culture standing at the brink of extinction, it “made many people, especially the youth, responsive to calls for pan-Maori mobilization” (Sharp 88) and the calls to Activism resonated clearly within the people. Ausubel states, “the determination of the Maori people to preserve their cultural identity was implemented by the perpetuative mechanism of almost complete physical, social, and psychological withdrawal from erosive contact with European culture” (227).

The 1960s and 1970s brought about a global surge in ethnic and social identity recognition and equality. Calls for woman’s and black rights in America could be seen reciprocated in the cultural movements in Australia, Canada, South America, and in New Zealand. Given the new communication mediums of television and radio, people from around the world could see the efforts made by similar groups and find inspiration in them. The Nga Tamatoa, a Maori group, lobbied for Maori language to be taught in schools (Spolsky 560). The Land Rights Movement, led by Maori women, conducted protests and marches for Maori land restitution (Bourassa and Strong 237). These movements intensified in 1975 and the Labour Party moved quickly to address the growing protests by establishing the Waitangi Tribunal—a governing body to address grievances concerning the Treaty of Waitangi.