Left Further Behind - Child Poverty Action Group

incurred if families were allowed to break down entirely by being forced into reliance on charity or
family members.
It took a great deal of time for Māori to fit into this very limited picture of an economically productive
society. Throughout the first half of the 20th century Māori were rebuilding after the traumas of the
19 th century had decimated the population. As the Māori population began to rebound after World War
II, a predominantly rural population with close ties to traditional tribal social and cultural structures
transformed into a predominantly urban population, often separated from land and tribal structures
and those traditional means of welfare. 23
Considering the massive changes that took place in Māori
society, it is interesting to note that Māori attitudes to the new
social security system established from 1938 were decidedly
ambivalent. Renowned Ngāti Porou leader, politician and
scholar Sir Apirana Ngata on the one hand, feared that Māori
would become increasingly disenfranchised from their traditional
tribal lands and culture as a result of social security benefits. In
his view Māori ought to be able to retain their tribal identity and
provide for their own. On the other hand, other important Māori
leaders such as T.W. Rātana, charismatic prophet and leader
of the politically influential Rātana movement, saw important
opportunities in the growth of the welfare state for Māori to attain
a level of social equality that had been denied them (Cheyne,
O’Brien, & Belgrave, 2005).
Rātana Church in Raetihi
Indeed, a citizenship-based discourse which emphasises commonality between Māori and Pākehā in
New Zealand has a long history. Formal discrimination against Māori ended in 1935 with the election
of the Labour Government, which cemented its alliance with the Rātana political movement in 1936
(Henderson, 1963). The movement provided successful Rātana candidates for the four guaranteed
Māori electoral seats, and the alliance between Rātana and Labour pursued assimilationist policies
that sought to achieve Māori equality with other New Zealanders and socio-economic development. 24
The Māori contribution to New Zealand’s role in World War II, as exemplified by the exploits of the
Māori Battalion, also led to high Māori expectations that they would be accepted as full citizens within
mainstream society and attain a level of control over their own affairs. For example, with the beginning
of World War II, Apirana Ngata urged Māori enlist for military service in a 1940 pamphlet entitled The
Price of Citizenship, an important expression of an idea of common citizenship as demonstrated
by Māori and Pākehā participation in the armed struggle for national defence. Notwithstanding his
view that universally applied benefits under the Social Security Act 1938 were, in large measure,
dangerous to Māori abilities to manage their own destinies, he saw no contradiction in a full-throated
support of the Māori war effort on the basis of shared citizenship: 25
23 For a very useful account of the critically important role urbanisation has had in the reformation of Maori communities,
see Durie (2005).
24 Māori have had guaranteed electoral representation since the passage of the Māori Representation Act 1867. For a full
account of the establishment and history of the Māori seats see Wilson (2010).
25 “Response to war – Maori and the Second World War”, URL: http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/war/maori-in-second-world-war/
response, (Ministry for Culture and Heritage), updated 20 Oct 2008. See also Meredith (2000).
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