126 Maranga Mai! 1931-1959: World War II; Māori War Effort Organisation; Government appropriation of Māori innovation; Integration and urbanisation highlights racism; All Black Tour of South Africa, School Cert Māori is a foreign language option World War ll: 1940-1945 Māori enlisted for WWII for many reasons; to escape poverty or to follow their whānau and friends but, in general, volunteers were also motivated substantially by a desire to affirm the Treaty partnership and secure greater equality of status with Pākehā (Cleaver, P, 2018). Ultimately, nearly 16,000 Māori enlisted for service during World War II. Māori requested their own military unit and the 28th (Māori) Battalion was formed and became one of the most highly decorated of all units in the New Zealand forces. The Victoria Cross (VC) was awarded to Te Moananui-a-Kiwa Ngārimu in 1943. Three other Māori men were recommended for a VC – Haane Manahi, Jim Matahaere, and Charlie Shelford - but did not receive one (receiving instead a DCM). It is not known why they did not receive a VC (Ministry for Culture and Heritage, 2013). The Māori veterans received widespread praise for their wartime service but returned to a country that was in many ways racially divided. In the postwar years Māori continued to suffer from discrimination, lack of opportunities and the effects of unjust government policies (After the War | 28 Māori Battalion (28maoribattalion.org.nz). Rangatiratanga and Manaakitanga At home Māori created the Māori War Effort Organisation (MWEO). Coordinated by several dozen tribal executives, committees operated independently of government, rallying support, recruiting Māori into wartime, employment, fundraising, and engaging in activities which exceeded their official brief, such as community-based welfare work or cultural revival. Towards the end of the war, Māori leaders attempted to get the government to recognise the ‘self-administration and discipline’ their people had demonstrated in contributing to the war effort. In other words, they argued that Māori could run their own affairs autonomously, albeit within the parameters of Crown sovereignty. Pākehā could not accept this idea or the inevitable Māori unity it encouraged (Hill, 2009: chapter 1). Pākehā Politics - appropriation of Māori innovation 1946, Māori Social and Economic Welfare Organisation (MSEWO) Government continued its paternalism, and the Department of Native Affairs was retained. Iwi committees who wanted official recognition, had to opt into the new system. Such committees would be incorporated into departmental structures as constituent parts of Native/Māori Affairs, their activities overseen by departmental officers. The department’s new MSEWO (generally called the Māori Welfare Organisation, and from 1952, the Welfare Division). Māori were in this respect, less powerful and autonomous than they were during the war. By 1950, Māori leaders had signed up to the MSEWO. Committees entered into numerous interactions with the Department of Māori Affairs, and some of them began to go beyond their official briefs. This was tolerated as long as it met the goals of the State. The arrangement was considered temporary because Māori were to be assimilated. (Hill, 2009: chapter 1) 1953 The Māori Affairs Act set up the Māori Affairs Department to purchase land from Māori. It could compulsorily purchase Māori land valued at less than £50. If Māori couldn’t or wouldn’t develop land according to European standards, the Māori Trustee could lease the land at its unimproved value against owners’ wishes. At the end of the lease, if the original owners wanted the land back, they had to pay for the improvements or lose the land. Urbanisation; Racism Te Reo Māori is still forbidden in many public places such as the Courts Fragmentation of Māori land title meant that Māori owners faced tighter restrictions to loans that were otherwise available to Pākehā farmers. As a result, they began to move away to urban areas to seek waged labour (this