Bigger than me. Bigger than all of us. The Uncensored history of Māori.
There was a time when Māori were barred from public toilets, segregated at the cinema & swimming pools, refused alcohol, haircuts & taxi rides, forced to stand for white bus passengers and not allowed to attend school with other students.
It happened in the South Auckland town of Pukekohe. Using records from the National Archives and firsthand interviews, No Maori Allowed looks at what happened in Pukekohe and the extent of racial intolerance across the country at this time.
In Hamilton, stores refused to let them try on pants, on Karangahape Road in Auckland, shop signs read ‘No Credit for Maori.’ Councils jacked up prices for state houses to keep them out of ‘white’ neighbourhoods, hospitals had segregated maternity wards and gave them less expensive cutlery, and banks and shops held official policies of not hiring ‘coloureds.’
DO YOU HAVE A STORY TO SHARE?
I am collecting more stories and accounts from people during the segregation era (1925 to the early 1960s). I am looking for people who have any stories of this period and would like to share them. This may include the recollection of stories from parents or grandparents. I am interested in interviewing people, collecting photos, and archival documents for a second book. This includes stories from anywhere in Aotearoa. Feel free to contact me at:
rebartholomew@yahoo.com
CONTENTS
Acknowledgements 1
Preface by Bruce Ringer 2
Introduction: An Inconvenient Truth 3
Three Stories of Racial Intolerance
Forbidden History
Segregation vs Apartheid
Dirty and Contagious: Playing the Hygiene Card
1
Pukekohe: A Town Divided 17
The Historical Backdrop
Myth-Making: The Battle of Pukekohe
Prelude to a Tragedy
The Devil’s Garden
2
Exploited and Excluded 32
The Māori Seduction Scare
The Ngata Inquiry
“Unfit for human occupation”
Cheap Vegetables over Māori Health
“A disgrace to the country”
Asian Undesirables
1937 – Barred from Shop Toilets
A Grim Harvest
George Parvin: Deputy Mayor and Racist
Blaming the Victim
Public Outcry
Scapegoating Māori
Living in a Cowshed
The Royal Report
The Army Hut Saga
1950: Still Barred from Public Toilets
The Reservation
A Final Stand to Exclude Māori
3
The Road to Otherness 72
Moral Panic
The White New Zealand League
Māori: Long Lost European Cousins…
“The intellect of children” – Early Views of Māori
The Language of Racism
Pukekohe Fairy Tales
Conspiracy Theories and Pseudo-History
4
We Don’t Cut Maori Hair: Stories of Racial Segregation in Pukekohe 95
A Town with a Dark History
No Credit for Māori
The Country’s Only Segregated School
Strapped for Speaking Māori and Using the ‘White’ Toilet
The Case of Lundon Haretuku
Segregation at the Cinema
Fighting Mad
Forced to Stand on the Bus
5
We Don’t Serve Māori Here: Exposing the National Colour Bar 112
The Bennett Affair
The Man Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest
Māori Workers Cannot be Trusted
Māori Do Not Love Their Children
The Guardian Affair and the ‘Colour Line’
“I want those Māoris out of here”
6
Māori Need Not Apply 126
“References won’t help you; it’s the colour”
The Curious Case of BNZ Bank
“Europeans only”
The Confidential Report on Racial Discrimination
“Maori bug”
“Customers prefer to deal with Pakeha”
Housing Discrimination: Unwritten Rules
“Because she’s a Māori, I’ll have to consult my other tenants”
Housing Discrimination: A Self-Fulfilling Prophecy
7
Confronting the Confronting the Past 146
Five Decades of Apathy, Exploitation, and Suffering
Snapshots in Time
Persisting Stereotypes
The Myth of Race
The Question of Māori privilege
Knowledge is Power
Appendix 1: The Pukekohe-Māori Death Register 161
Appendix 2: Photos of Pukekohe Māori housing in 1929 166
About the Author 171
Selected Bibliography 172
Index 181