Dawn Raid- Explanation text

 Title: Dawn Raids

What are Dawn aids? Getting dawn raided is when police come

rushing into your house early in the morning. Most people

believe that the police are being “RACIST” because the

police mostly arrest polynesian people and also black people

(African American people). But what do they want?

The police think that these polynesian/African people are OVERSTAYERS, so once they come into people’s houses the

first thing they want to see is their paperwork and passports!

If you didn’t have them then the police would arrest them

until their family shows the paperwork/passports to the

police to release that person. 

PACIFIC PEOPLE MIGRATION TO NZ

In the 1970’s New Zealand invited people from the

south pacific to come live in NZ to meet the demand

for cheap labour. People came from all over, including

Tonga, Samoa and Fiji and Realm countries like

Niue and the Cook Islands. It was advertised as the land of

milk and honey- lots of jobs, better education, and better healthcare. When they migrated to NZ, ⅔ lived in Auckland

and the rest settled in Wellington and Christchurch. In

Auckland, most pacific people lived in suburbs like Ponsonby,

Grey Lynn and Herne Bay. By 1971 there were more than

41,000 pacific people in NZ. They worked in low wage jobs,

such as cleaning or working in factories. They worked very

long hours (E.g.. 10-12 hours per day). Some were paid

$1.50 per hour ( which is $17 in today’s money). There were

enough

Pacific people here that they started to build their own community, such as churches and their community support.

Many children were born to these migrants, and these children

 were automatically citizens. Another reason Pacific people

wanted to come to NZ was so their children could have better education and future job opportunities than they would have

had in the islands. Nz was advertised as the land of milk and honey, better jobs, better life and more. Pacific people were

faced discrimination. 

ECONOMIC CRISIS

In the early 1970’s, Britain made a decision about who they

trade good with that majorly affected the NZ

economy. Oil prices skyrocketed which meant petrol

prices went up as well. Lots of businesses went bankrupt

resulting in huge job losses. These job losses mostly affected

the Pacific Island community, so they were mostly blamed

for the crime that happened because of the job losses. 

POLYNESIAN PANTHERS

The polynesian

panthers were a group of young men and

women who were Nz born and were raised in New Zealand by Pacific Islanders. This gang wanted to fight back against the oppression and racism pacific islanders were experiencing in

that time. The polynesian panthers were inspired by a group

who does the same thing called the Black Panthers and the

symbol of the panther was the polynesian panthers symbol too, they chose the symbol of a panther because a

panther only

attacks when it gets attacked FIRST! This is a metaphor

for the Panthers - they are only fighting back against

oppression. The polynesian panther headquarters organise housings,

prison visits, educations, help people who got raided, and

organise safety crossings in Franklin Road after 2

Niuean kids were killed, they did this because they were

second class citizens. 

The Legacy

The legacy of the Dawn Raids was long term fear and

mistrust of the police. While the Dawn Raid terms were

happening, this caused intergenerational trauma. In my grandparents generations, they would get mistreated

like being called n**** or other means names,

they would get forced to go back home and much much

more. In my parents' generations, they would never have

known about their parents getting mistreated or maybe my

parents went through this hard time but I didn’t know

because they won’t tell me their history in NZ. In MY

generation, some people are nice and some aren’t

so I didn’t go through times like seeing my parents

get bossed around or getting arrested. My life has

been different from my ancestors so I didn’t know

anything about Dawn Raids, if I ask my parents they

wouldn’t say anything, maybe because they

don’t want to think about the hard time they had in the past!

Apology

It is a modern trend for governments to admit their historical wrong-doings and publicly apologize for them. In 2008 the Australian government apologized to the Aboriginal people in a 20 minute speech, for mistreatment of the people, confiscation of the land etc. In 2019 the government of Canada apologized to the Inuit people and First Nations people for decades of discrimination and mistreatment. Although these apologies do not fix the harm that was done, admitting what they did is harmful is a step in the right direction. On the 14th of June 2021, Jacinda Adern (Nz’s prime minister) announced the government would apologise for the Dawn Raids on June 26th 2021. Although this will not undo the intergenerational trauma caused by the Dawn Raids, acknowledging it is a start towards equity. 

Conclusion

Throughout dawn raids pacific people felt discussed of the white people’s attitude. I have noticed that my dad is growing an afro subtle to reclaim his culture. I hope my parents will one day tell their history to me!

Written by Junefia Wilco