Chronology for 1972-1989
(Re)Claiming Māori welfare
From the 1970s, iwi Māori faced an unemployment crisis. ‘Between 1976 and 1981, rates of Māori unemployment increased dramatically. In 1981, Māori comprised almost a quarter (24.2 percent) of the total unemployed, a figure that represented 14.1 percent of the Māori workforce, compared to 3.7 percent of the non-Māori workforce. The unemployment crisis worsened for Māori throughout the 1980s as Māori suffered a job-loss rate of 15.1 percent between 1988 and 1991, compared to the Pākehā rate of 3.1 percent for the same period. This became one contributing factor for the return of many iwi Māori to their rural homelands. In 1988, however, researchers described a ‘Māori rural housing crisis due to decades of neglect by housing authorities’.[i] go to footnote
In 1984, 46.5 percent of all offenders under 15 were Māori boys.[ii] go to footnote Of complaints coming to the attention of the children's courts, 44.1 percent were for ‘children beyond control’, nearly half of whom were Māori (45.5 percent), and 73 percent of the total were dealt with by committing the child to the care of the Department of Social Welfare.[iii] go to footnote
Government policy
From the 1970s to the early 1990s, the growing cost of providing welfare services and a new philosophy of ‘user-pays’ called into question the continued viability of extensive welfare support and started the castigation of ‘welfare dependency’.[iv] go to footnote The context for the 1980s through to the 1990s was also the privatisation of state assets such as lands and forestry. Consequently, the NZMC challenged the sale of state assets, giving rise to the legal definitions of Treaty of Waitangi principles that underpinned challenges to government policy.
From the 1980s, government departments faced more direct and assertive Māori challenges and struggled to appear responsive to Māori concerns. Social Welfare had to address the question of how to achieve departmental reform within a clear Treaty context and while meeting treaty obligations.
By the mid-1980s it was estimated that $75.4 million was being transferred annually from government departments to the voluntary social sector. Sixty-eight percent of this was pre-allocated to large organisations such as Plunket and IHC.[v] go to footnote
Māori claimed control over their future and wellbeing and there was much organising in local Māori communities, rural and urban. Hoani Waititi marae opened in west Auckland and Pipitea Marae opened in Wellington. Te Whare Wānanga o Raukawa opened at Ōtaki, the first kōhanga reo opened at Wainuiomata, following Hui Whakatauira. Tatai Hono marae became a base for the Waitangi Action Committee (WAC) and Bastion Point activists, and a rallying stage for anti-Springbok tour protests.
Māori activism across the spectrum of te ao Māori continued with both conservative and high-profile protests fuelled by continuing discontent about racism, the loss of land, language, cultural identity, rangatiratanga and Treaty of Waitangi status. A Māori Language petition, 30,000 signatures strong, was delivered to Parliament in 1972. The 1975 Māori Land March led by Te Roopu Matakite o Aotearoa ‘demanded that the statute books be cleared of any legislation that could encroach on Māori land, and that patronising government interference in Māori land cease’.
In 1977 and 1978 there were land occupations at Takaparawhāu (Bastion Point) and Raglan Golf Course. By the late 1970s, WAC denounced Waitangi Day commemorations as tokenistic and the day became the focus of annual hikoi protests to Waitangi. In 1979, He Taua confronted University of Auckland engineering students practising a mock haka ‘culminating in eleven arrests, charges of rioting – and the end of the engineering students’ mock haka’.[vi] go to footnote
The Māori Women’s Movement was led by a new generation of women activists agitating around issues of race and gender. Many women campaigned about the Treaty, te reo and a range of social issues such as health and education – on both national and regional stages. All ‘gave expression to notions of mana wāhine’.[vii] go to footnote
Chronology events
Displaying 31 - 40 of 270 events.
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Government Advances to Settlers Act
Established the Government Advances to Settlers Office with the original purpose of providing cheap land for farmers in a period of falling overseas prices. It also allowed the government to lend to rural settlers who owned land but had limited access to c…
Date: 1894 Period: 1835-1899 -
Kotahitanga Parliament drafts Native Rights Bill
The Bill was tabled in Parliament by Māori MPs. It sought the abolition of the Native Land Court, the right of Māori to make their own land laws, and Māori control of reserved land and land developments.[i] Parliament rejected the Native Rights Bill in 189…
Date: 1894 Period: 1835-1899 -
Old-age Pension Act
The first statutory provision for old-age pensions. Excludes Māori receiving money under the Civil List Act 1873. Most Māori received less than the full rate and were likely deterred by application requirements, such as providing proof of birth.[i] Neverth…
Date: 1898 Period: 1835-1899 -
Māori Councils Act
Under the Māori Councils Act, Māori settlements were empowered to elect a marae committee (Komiti Marae) – the individual members of which were awarded statutory powers to control the liquor trade, regulate traffic and impose sanitation measures. Komiti Ma…
Date: 1900 Period: 1900-1937 -
Prohibition
Once women have the right to vote, from 1893, elections are commonly accompanied by referenda on alcohol prohibition. Although Māori were not allowed to vote in National Licensing Referenda until 1949, prohibition was something that Māori felt very strongl…
Date: 1900 Period: 1900-1937 -
Public Health Act 1900
The first Māori Doctor, Maui Pomare, was recruited to the new Department of Public Health ‘Māori Health’ section as ‘Health Commissioner for the Natives’ in 1901. Te Rangi Hīroa (Peter Buck) engaged as Pomare’s assistant in 1905.[i]
Date: 1900 Period: 1900-1937 -
Residential care for young offenders
Residential care was regarded as the best option for young offenders and for young people considered to be out of control. Alternative forms of care, such as foster care with non-family members, were reserved for the least difficult children committed to t…
Date: 1900 Period: 1900-1937 -
The Māori Lands Administration Act
The Māori Lands Administration Act granted Māori some local autonomy and some legal power over their land. However, special conditions restricted these gains.[i]
Date: 1900 Period: 1900-1937 -
Native Land Claims and Adjustment and Amendment Act
This Act made it necessary to formally ‘register whangai placements in the Native Land Court to qualify the child to succeed to lands of their whangai parents’.[i] The Act also legalised the adoption of children outside of the kin-based network.
Date: 1901 Period: 1900-1937 -
Old Age Pension policy for Māori
Old-age Pensions Office became an independent department.[i] In 1904 the decision by New Plymouth magistrate Thomas Hutchinson to pay a reduced rate of pension, £12 rather than £18, to a Māori pensioner set a precedent for an unofficial policy that lasted …
Date: 1904 Period: 1900-1937
Footnotes
- [i] go to main content Panguru and the City, p. 234.
- [ii] go to main content 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, p. 161.
- [iii] go to main content April report, vol. 1, p. 162.
- [iv] go to main content Bronwyn Dalley, Family Matters, Wellington, 1998, p. 261.
- [v] go to main content Margaret Tennant, Past Judgement: Social Policy in New Zealand History, co-edited with Bronwyn Dalley, 2004, p. 53.
- [vi] go to main content Atholl Anderson, Judith Binney, Aroha Harris, Tangata Whenua: An Illustrated History, Bridget Williams Books, Wellington, 2014, p. 423.
- [vii] go to main content Tangata Whenua, pp. 416–423.