Chronology for 1835-1899
The colonial redistribution of welfare: Dismantling hapū ora
This period opens with a politically and socio-economically robust iwi Māori population of around 80,000 people.[i] go to footnote Whenua and whakapapa form the basis of hapū and whānau wellbeing. W.H. Oliver argues that the first instrument of social policy in New Zealand was the system set up by Hobson in 1840 for the purchase and resale to settlers of Māori land.[ii] go to footnote Pākehā welfare was dependent on the continued dispossession of Māori land.[iii]go to footnote
The New Zealand Wars (1845–1872) either directly or indirectly impacted all iwi Māori throughout New Zealand.[iv] go to footnote Related legislative measures enabled the Crown to alienate Māori land and taonga across the motu prior to and beyond the next century via confiscation, land tenure reforms, local legislative measures and contested land purchases.
Iwi Māori assertions of rangatiratanga and resistance to the alienation of lands occurred across the motu, either physically, through the courts, via direct petitioning to the government or through the simple occupation of lands. Such measures led to some government concessions, such as the Sims Commission and South Island Landless Natives Act 1906,[v] go to footnote but after 1872 resistance also sometimes led to the government’s use of force in the later 19th century and well into the 20th century. (eg, Parihaka in 1881, Waima in 1898, Takaparawhāu in 1978).[vi] go to footnote
By the end of the 19th century Māori were a minority of the national. In 1896 the Māori population hit an all-time low of 42,650, compared to a Pākehā population of just over 700,000. Although the Māori population was recovering, their communities were reeling from land alienation, decline of resources, indebtedness, diseases and Māori communities survived on subsistence economies, with a growing dependence on paid work.
Māori were either excluded or faced barriers to accessing welfare support introduced during this period.
Chronology events
Displaying 241 - 250 of 270 events.
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Te Kupenga released
Statistics NZ released Te Kupenga, the Māori Social Survey - the first ever nationally representative survey of Māori and whānau wellbeing. The last Te Kupenga survey took place in 2018.[i]
Date: 2013 Period: 1990-current -
Māori Housing Strategy launched
The Māori Housing Strategy – He Whare Āhuru He Oranga Tāngata reflected the government’s desire for a long-term strategy to improve Māori housing and respond to the housing aspirations of whānau, hapū and iwi.[i]
Date: 2014 Period: 1990-current -
Expert Advisory Panel review
In April 2015, the Minister for Social Development, Anne Tolley, established an expert advisory panel to review the Child, Youth and Family Agency (CYF) and the care and protection system, and to determine how the lives of vulnerable children in New Zealan…
Date: 2015 Period: 1990-current -
Māori Data Sovereignty Network established
An inaugural meeting on Māori Data Sovereignty was held at Hopuhopu on 19 October 2015 where the formation of Te Mana Raraunga as a Māori Data Sovereignty Network was accepted by the participants and the contents of the charter discussed. The purpose was t…
Date: 2015 Period: 1990-current -
Social Investment Agency
In a series of speeches in 2015, the Minister of Finance, Bill English, and his Associate Minister, Paula Bennett, reiterated that the government was applying a ‘social investment’ approach to welfare. The Social Investment Unit of the State Services Commi…
Date: 2015 Period: 1990-current -
The Vulnerable Children’s Act
The Vulnerable Children’s Act and the Vulnerable Children (Requirements for Safety Checks of Children’s Workers) Regulations 2015 introduced new requirements for children’s worker safety checking. State services and organisations providing government-funde…
Date: 2015 Period: 1990-current -
Oranga Tamariki Act amendments
The Children, Young Persons, and Their Families (Vulnerable Children) Amendment Act introduced ‘Subsequent child’ provisions to the Oranga Tamariki Act 1989, as part of a ‘package of reforms to address child abuse and neglect’. The new provisions, under se…
Date: 2016 Period: 1990-current -
Mana Tamaiti principles
Introduction of Mana Tamaiti principles to Oranga Tamariki – Ministry for Children through the Children, Young Persons, and Their Families (Oranga Tamariki) Legislation Act.[i] A Māori Design Group was established alongside Oranga Tamariki as an external …
Date: 2017 Period: 1990-current -
Reports of concern in relation to Māori children
Māori children made up the greatest proportion of Oranga Tamariki care and protection notifications requiring further action.[i] Māori made up 55% of care and protection notices (Reports of Concern) requiring further action, compared with ‘other ethnicity…
Date: 2017 Period: 1990-current -
Abuse in Care Royal Commission
The Government announced the establishment of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Historical Abuse in State Care (later extended to include Faith-based Institutions). The Royal Commission’s contextual hearing, its first substantive public hearing, was hel…
Date: 2018 Period: 1990-current
Footnotes
- [i] go to main content ‘The first Māori census was attempted in 1857–58’. Atholl Anderson, Judith Binney, Aroha Harris, Tangata Whenua: An Illustrated History, Bridget Williams Books, Wellington, 2014, p. 246. Earlier censuses were taken during the 1840s, however these were particular to regions and settlements and from there estimates were made by missionaries and colonists as to what the national population level might have been. Salmond and other prominent authors are sceptical of these figures and believe the numbers were greater. A census of Māori was attempted in 1867 but warfare prevented its completion. Tangata Whenua, Appendix One, p. 490.
- [ii] go to main content Cited in Margaret Tennant, Past Judgement: Social Policy in New Zealand History, co-edited with Bronwyn Dalley, 2004, p. 17.; ‘The April report: report of the Royal Commission on Social Policy’, Volume 1: New Zealand Today, New Zealand Royal Commission on Social Policy, Wellington, 1988, pp. 4–5.
- [iii] go to main content Tennant, 2004, p. 41.
- [iv] go to main content For more detailed information see the following link: https://teara.govt.nz/en/new-zealand-wars
- [v] go to main content For more information see: Atholl Anderson, Judith Binney, Aroha Harris, Tangata Whenua: An Illustrated History, Bridget Williams Books, Wellington, 2014, pp. 256–301, and https://teara.govt.nz/en/new-zealand-wars
- [vi] go to main content Tangata Whenua, pp.322-3.