lecture 16: Maori and the political economy Flashcards
What challenges did Māori face during this
time?
–> tuhoe lands
- liberal government begins a systematic accumulation of tuhoe lands 1890s-1920s
- native land court convenes in territory
- forced sales
–> people with views that Maori culture should not be preserved
–> maori land loss continues
What were the causes of these challenges?
- taking of land by Native Land court to give more land to the incoming settlers
- state attempts to appropriate indigenous collective energies for its own assimilationist purposes
- by the early twentieth century, the effective demise of the maori parliament signalled the end of efforts to organise Maori on a pan-iwi basis
- although many Maori had helped in the war effort, when they returned the political decision makers maintaiend their long standing assimilationist policy of ‘Europeanising’ tangata whenua
How did Māori react to these challenges?
–> Sound Island landless natives act 1906 (SILNA)
–> Maori utilised the resultant crown dominated policies and institutions to further their own wellbeing and exercise rangatiratanga
–> economic improvement was one of the issues increasingly tackled at a central level, given the problems of tenure and finance common to most maori communities eg: halting further land alienation and improving the productivity of that remaining
What were some initiatives used by Māori to
recover from being disadvantaged?
- South island landless natives act 1906
- Allocated to every man, woman and child in the south island, 40acres/20 acres
- however these were in remote areas that could not be used
- fiordland, steep hills, gullies, no access
- the board of maori ethnological research
- the maori purposes fund
-Ratana movement
- capture the four Maori seats of parliament
- Labour/ratana coalition
–> tangata whenua interests were best pursued through initiatives within tribal institutions
What were Rātana’s political aspirations?
- Tahupotiki wiremu ratana emerged as a faith healer in 1918 in the wanganui district
- one of his aims was to have the treaty of waitangi enshrined into law
- petitions the government to enshrine the treaty into law
- takes a 26,000 person petition to present to king george V
- refused an audience with king george V
- decides to campaign and capture the four Maori seats of parliament
- largest maori movement, active in most communities
What was the purpose of the 1931 Native Purposes Act?
- authorised the settling of raupatu claims
- to consolidate various amendments of the laws relating to Maori lands
What was the organisation set up to strengthen the War ECort for Māori?
Maori war effort organisation
- focused on military recruiting
- by the end of the organisations 6 month trial a total of 315 tribal committees had been established
- their success ensured the organisation an extended life
the organisation also:
- helped families to cope while their wage earners were absent and assisted young men to adjust to urban life
- provided accommodation and employment to girls moving to the city
twentieth century (social aspects of Maori)
- maori population is at an all time low
- general consensus amongst pakeha that maori were a dying race
- maori located in mainly rural areas
- land holdings are severely depleted
Maori 1918 aspirations
- for the equality entrenched in article three of the treaty of waitangi
- for the crown to honour its article two commitment to rangatiratanga
over situation in the 1920s
- had seen an overall improvement in the socio economic condition of maori and the revival of Maoritanga
- but tangata whenua continued generally to live in the impoverished conditions to which colonisation had assigned them
