Māori War Effort Organisation
- When
- 1942–1945
- Reach
- Nationwide
More than 300 tribal committees organised recruitment, production and welfare — the most effective Māori self-administration the Crown had allowed since 1840.
Built on hapū and iwi structures rather than imposed on them, the organisation worked so well that Māori leaders pressed for it to continue in peacetime as a form of self-government. The Crown instead absorbed it into the Department of Māori Affairs under the Māori Social and Economic Advancement Act 1945, stripping out the autonomy. The episode is often cited as a lost opportunity for genuine Māori administration.
Regions affected
Sources
Written for this project from these references rather than copied from them. Follow a link to check the account against the original.
Related
The great Māori urban migration
Māori went from about 25 percent urban in 1945 to nearly 80 percent by 1975 — one of the fastest urbanisations recorded anywhere.
The influenza pandemic
About 9,000 people died in two months — roughly half as many as died in four years of war. Māori died at more than seven times the Pākehā rate.
Te reo Māori becomes an official language
Te Ture mō Te Reo Māori
Te reo Māori gained official status and the right to be spoken in court, fifteen years after the language petition and following a Waitangi Tribunal finding that it was a taonga.
The 28th (Māori) Battalion
Te Hokowhitu-a-Tū
A volunteer battalion organised by tribal area fought through Greece, Crete, North Africa and Italy, and took proportionally the heaviest casualties of any New Zealand unit.