Josiah Tualamali'i, made a documentary for the Fibre Gallery’s Lotogatasi o Tagata exhibition. Photo: Caleb Fotheringham
An exhibition in Christchurch marked 50-years since the Dawn Raids period started and three years since the historic apology but one of the artists says there's still more work to be done.
Josiah Tualamali'i, who made a documentary with Benji Timu for the Fibre Gallery's Lotogatasi o Tagata exhibition run by Tagata Moana Trust, said there hadn't been a gathering in Christchurch for Pacific communities marking the apology.
Tualamali'i's father, Amosa carved a table for the exhibition with the goal of creating something hopeful.
It depicts Tualamali'i and Benji Timu delivering the petition to Parliament asking for the apology and former Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern when it took place in 2021.
However, it was revealed that even after the apology dawn raid tactics were continuing to be used by Immigration New Zealand.
Pasifika were still being targeted but the majority were Asian.
"That for me is still something that is unresolved," Tualamali'i said.
Amosa Tualamali'i carved a table for the exhibition with the goal of creating something hopeful. Photo: Caleb Fotheringham
"There were many in the community who are really hopeful there was going to be a pathway to residency.
"Particularly in that covid moment there was a need for more workforce and that was potentially one of the ways to do that and that opportunity was missed."
Based on polling at the time of the apology by the Pacific Cooperation Foundation 85 percent of New Zealanders understood what the apology meant, and 66 percent of Pacific people accepted the apology.
"It was always going to be hard when there's been such deep hurt, there's some people who will take longer to process and may never fully process enough.
"The situation with those dawn raid tactics coming back in the 2022, 2023 period, that certainly doesn't help."
Part of the six-week exhibition - which ended last week - also touched on Green Party MP Teanau Tuiono's Bill Restoring Citizenship Removed by Citizenship (Western Samoa) Act 1982 Bill.
It would create a pathway to citizenship for a group of older Samoans born between 1924 and 1949.
In 1982, the Privy Council ruled that because those born in Western Samoa were treated by New Zealand law as "natural-born British subjects", they were entitled to New Zealand citizenship when it was first created in 1948.
However, the National Party-led government under Robert Muldoon took that away with the Western Samoa Citizenship Act 1982, effectively overturning the Privy Council ruling.
Pacific communities have continued to fight for the group of Samoans to be recognised as New Zealand citizens.
"I think one of the main things the exhibition is trying to show is that in Pacific cultures, we don't give up.
"I love that across many generations now that this fight has continued on and there's a lot of positivity in the community, here in Christchurch and around the country."
Tualamali'i said more people are understanding New Zealand's relationship with Samoa and the Treaty of Friendship.