MPs on the Dawn Raids

You will remember that on Sunday two weeks ago the Prime Minister made an official apology to Pasifika people on behalf of the government for the racist policies and actions of the Dawn Raids of the 1970s. 

This week Parliament set aside time for a few MPs to respond to the apology. Ten speeches were given, shared between the parties proportionally. 

There are 11 Pasifika MPs in the current Parliament but only five got to speak on this occasion (all the Pasifika MPs are in the Labour and Green caucuses).

Carmel Sepuloni also took the opportunity during last week’s General Debate and Tangi Utikere did the same this week. 

Here are some moments from that debate with voices from across the House but particularly from the Pasifika MPs.

Judtih Collins

To begin, however, some background from the National Party leader, Judtih Collins:

“I can well remember the situation in New Zealand at that time. Pacific Islanders had been invited into and encouraged into New Zealand post World War II because of the economic boom and the fact that we needed people to work. 

“Then 1973 came along, we had the oil shock, businesses were closing, people were losing their jobs, and Pacific people were overwhelmingly caught up in unemployment, housing situations, and all of those things. Someone needed to be scapegoated…”

“So I am very happy to stand on behalf of the National Party and say that I understand not all New Zealanders are going to understand all of the things that I'm talking about because they didn't live in it and they don't understand it or because they weren't part of it, but let me just say it is a wrong thing not to apologise. It's the wrong thing not to accept that wrongs were done, and we must own those.”

Aupito Su'a William Sio

The lead speaker for the government was the minister who organised the official apology ceremony at the Auckland Town Hall - Aupito Sua William Sio, the Minister for Pacific Peoples.

“You just need to go around the regions and see the thriving Pacific population from Tai Tokerau to Tai Tonga, from up north to Invercargill, to the east and west of Aotearoa New Zealand. We are a thriving population, but we are being held back when racism and discrimination rears its ugly head again and again and again. And I'm saying to this House and to all New Zealanders, we have to come together and slam racism on the head.

"That means that we as leaders of this House also have a duty and responsibility to send strong signals that flow out to all of New Zealand, because, as we say in Samoa, From the mountains flow the blessings that will bless the village. And it is the words that matter, as I said that night, because, rocks and boulders all turn to dust but words matter to us. Words will live forever through our oratory, through our songs, through our poetry, and we're asking our young people to use the words of that night and display it with pride everywhere they may be.”

Teanau Tuiono

Speaking for the Green Party Teanau Tuiono:

“I do support the education perspective of the Dawn Raids. It's really, really important, and I'm mindful of the saying that the struggle against powers is the struggle of remembering against forgetting, and so making sure that this stuff is locked into the curriculum is, I think, an essential part of doing the right thing.

"I don't think it should be voluntary, because the one thing I know about New Zealand is if it's uncomfortable, it gets swept under the carpet — and that should go with all parts of our history that are uncomfortable, whether it's the Land Wars, whether it is what happened in Samoa in terms of the Mau movement, and it must also happen with the Dawn Raids.”

Rawiri Waititi

For the Māori Party Rawiri Waititi:

“What do the police see when they see brown faces? Criminals. Violence. Overstayer. But not brother, father, cousin, leader, or activist. Our journeys of navigation and migration have led us back to each other, and our kinship runs deep and is bound across generations…

“Tangata moana, this is my message to you: you are not overstayers, you are not a problem to be solved, you are not leeches to this country, and you do not need to be assimilated. Tangata moana, you are our whanaunga; our shared whakapapa tells us so. Kia ora tātou.”

Anahila Kanongata’a-Suisuiki

Labour MP Anahila Kanongata’a-Suisuiki:

“I quote, 'Keke 'ilo'ia mai, te'eki ke mafoa e ata, 'oku 'a. Ko hoku kaunga fononga koe fetu'u pea moe mahina, na'aku lotu kihe 'Eiki ke kau mai 'ihe 'eku fononga. Peau hiva e ngaahi himi, 'a hoku hufanga'anga.' 'If only you knew my companions were the stars and the moon. I found refuge in my prayers to God to keep us safe, and found peace in singing hymns as we leave our homes before dawn.'

"Those were the words of Ailine Tupou Kanongata'a, wife of Siosiua Likiliki. They were members of Fakafeangai Mā'oni'oni Tongan Methodist church and were overstayers from 1971 to 1978. They are my parents, who are laid to rest at Waikaraka cemetery in Onehunga, Auckland. That's the extent of the sharing by my mother of how they survived the Dawn Raids. Usually she brings it out when I need a reflection on my behaviour and reminder of my responsibilities.”

Barbara Edmonds

Labour’s Barbara Edmonds represents the Mana electorate and Porirua, a hot spot of the dawn raids.

“On hearing of the upcoming government apology, my father's brother Malaesa told his story: ‘The raids and the targeting didn't just happen in our homes. They happened in our workplaces and our schools.’ My uncle was on the morning shift at the Moore Taylor shoe factory. One early Tuesday morning, police and Immigration officers undertook checks at his job. My uncle was arrested while other members of my family looked on helplessly. He was taken to court, held in a boarding home for two nights on Symonds Street, then taken to the Ōtāhuhu Police Station where he was held for a further two nights. 

“On the Saturday, he was taken to the airport where my mother and father met him and had a few moments to say goodbye. He was deported back to Samoa. My uncle was confused and frustrated as English was his second language and he did not fully understand what was happening to him. Neither my uncle nor my father had shared the story previously. My uncle said it was not something he wanted to share. He held on to that shame and embarrassment for decades. Two weeks ago, my father and my uncles, Malaesa and Oscar, witnessed the apology in town, and I'm grateful they were alive to be able to do so.”

Barbara Edmonds also told the story of a woman who lost her identity.

“The story of a Porirua Samoan woman named Emily is one I leave the House with today: Emily was the chosen one from her siblings to be educated and to carry the responsibility of providing for her family. She was sent to New Zealand on her auntie's papers and legally was a different person. She had the birth date on her papers of 21 January 1935. Emily worked hard to live an honest life. She celebrated her 65th birthday when, in fact, she was only 58. 

“Her children did not know how much the fear of deportation had sat on their mother's shoulders until she was at the end of her life. Before she died, she asked her children to put on her headstone her real date of birth; the threat of deportation wouldn't happen when she died. So let it be put on this record of this House: Sivailoa Emily Mareko was born on 11 January 1942. 

“Like other trailblazers: Toe'sulu Brown, Josiah, Benji, Lucia, Jaistone. Thank you, keep up the work. E pala ma'a, ae le pala upu — rocks and boulders will crumble, but words and promises last for ever.”

Anae Neru Leavasa

Labour MP Anae Neru Leavasa spoke of the experience of attending the August 1st apology, particularly the soundscape created for it.

“As we were getting welcomed by Ngāti Whātua, walking down the aisle, being welcomed by the Niuean, Cook Island communities with their drums, and then we had stopped at the front of the town hall and we heard that soundtrack: the soundscape where it was eerily silent, then we heard the sounds of the night, we heard the knocking on the door, the dogs starting to bark, the feet and the footsteps within the house, it was so — I tried to hold it in but I couldn't, and I can see that many of the community that were sitting there in the town hall all had teary eyes because that was just a glimpse of what had happened in that time period.”

And while we are collecting moments from Pasifika MP’s speeches here are a couple of moments from the two MPs who grabbed a chance to talk about the Dawn Raids during the two most recent General Debates.

Tangi Utikere 

Tangi Utikere, Labour MP for Palmerston North.

“Now, I was not born at the time of the Dawn Raids, but members of my Cook Island family were, and the pain that they and others endured, whether it be physical, whether it be emotional pain, obviously lasted for many years and no doubt has been a stain on New Zealand's historical record as well. 

“I guess it has been difficult for members of our Cook Island, our Niuean, our Tokelauan, and our Māori communities, because they have been New Zealand citizens at birth and they were New Zealand citizens who were subjected to treatment that was racially motivated, inhumane, unethical, and unfair. And so I want to place on record my thanks to the government for doing the right thing in delivering an apology to our communities that has been widely accepted by Pasifika, pan-Pasifika and non-Pasifika communities, in it being in a culturally acceptable and appropriate way.”

Carmel Sepuloni

Carmel Sepuloni, the Minister for Social Development.

“In 1964, my own father migrated to New Zealand from Samoa. He was part of the wave of Pacific migrants who entered New Zealand during the 1950s and 60s, invited to come here to Aotearoa New Zealand to address the workforce shortages that we were experiencing here. He came here, he moved to Taranaki, he worked on the railways, and he occasionally helped with haymaking. He played for the Taupō rugby and cricket teams. He met a farmer's daughter and he had three daughters born in 1974, 1977, and 1980. He then went and settled in Waitara and worked at the freezing works. 

“It's really hard for this daughter of a migrant to comprehend that the backdrop to that history and to the history of so many other Pacific people that came at the same time, or within those two decades, was a history where they were traumatised and terrorised, where they were chased down by dogs, where they were arrested unlawfully, and where they were harassed on the street. They were traumatised. So I am very proud to be part of a government who, on Sunday, reached out to our Pacific community to heal the wrongs of the past, to officially apologise for what we have all known for a long time was wrong, and for mistreatment of the Pacific community of that time.”