58
Maranga Mai!
were advanced; those who lived in the cities who
were still ‘Māori’ but were making progress; and
those who lived in rural areas, spoke Māori, and
remained backward and retarded (Taonui, 2008).
Apart from retaining a notional culture based on
poi and haka, the report recommended more
integration (Walker, 2004, p. 511).
Domestic and
international
consciousness raising
In the melting pot of the cities, Māori youth resisted
and adapted to new circumstances with the
advantage that, living in closer proximity to Pākehā,
they were more ‘streetwise’ than their rural kin. If
given direction, this ‘streetwiseness’ represented the
potential for transformative change because proximity
and knowledge of a dominant culture creates the
potential for emancipation in subjugated cultures
(Freire, 1972, p. 149).
Alienation paved a path to conscious radical protest
(Newbold, Taonui, 2011). Some connected across
a bridge of cultural loss. Others linked personal
and collective experiences of racism with the wider
colonial history of Māori. While structurally prejudiced,
greater tertiary education opportunities, including for
those who completed degrees and those who did not,
introduced Māori to new analytical tools from Marxist,
feminist, decolonial and anti-racism discourses
(Taonui, 2021).
Awareness increased against a backdrop of the
struggle for international human rights. The Universal
Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) was followed
by the decolonisation of third world countries, the
American Civil Rights Movement, and the passing
of the United Nation’s International Convention for
the Elimination of all Forms of Racial Discrimination
(CERD). Indigenous peoples' movements were also
on the rise. The first meetings of Māori, Aboriginal
and North American Indian representatives occurred
in 1971 and 1974. Māori took inspiration from Martin
Luther King, Malcolm X, and other African American
activists. Posters of Che Guevara and cool-looking
African Americans became popular accessories in
the tool kits of aspiring activists (Taonui, 2021).
The metropolitan media raised awareness through
prominent public debates over the Bennett affair, the
1960 tour, and the publication of Washday at the Pa,
which patronised Māori life. With the introduction of
television, Māori witnessed Black athletes giving Black
Power salutes at the Mexico Olympics, the death
of Martin Luther King in 1968, protests at home and
abroad against the Vietnam War, the Aboriginal Tent
Embassy of 1972, and the Wounded Knee occupation
in South Dakota in 1973 (Taonui, 2021).
All Blacks tour to South Africa (1960)
Māori activists marched against the New Zealand
Rugby Football Union decision to exclude Māori
players from the 1960 tour to South Africa, declaring
‘No Māori, No Tour’, chanting ‘all whites All Blacks
tour’ and ‘fe, fi, fo fum, ain’t no hōris in that scrum’.
Māori activists would go onto up-skill in the domestic
vehicles of CARE (Citizens Association for Racial
Equality) and HART (Halt All Racist Tours). Māori
activist, Tama Poata, is credited with inventing the
latter’s name. Ngāhuia Te Awekōtuku and Donna
Awatere contributed to the Women’s Liberation
Movement. Syd Jackson was active in the union
movement (Poata-Smith, 1996, pp. 98-102).
An unaddressed history (1860 to 1980)
Alongside this, the emerging urban Māori movement
was also learning lessons from past broken promises.
At Kohimarama in 1860, the Crown promised chiefs an
annual consultative hui, an advisory Native Council,
and ongoing discussions, none of which ever
materialised (Cox, 1993, pp. 77-80).
Crown support for Apirana Ngata’s consolidation and
development schemes on 240,000 hectares of Māori
land between 1909 and 1940 was conditional on his
agreeing to a fund that would alienate a further 1.4
million hectares of Māori land between 1910 and 1930
(Waitangi Tribunal, 1997, Vol II, pp. 383-384, 413-423).
Tainui refused to attend the centennial Treaty of
Waitangi celebrations in 1940 in protest over unjust
1860s land confiscations. Ngāi Tahu attended the
southern celebration but raised long-standing
grievances. Apirana Ngata questioned the myth
of harmonious race relations saying: