The rural town of Pukekohe, south of Auckland, has a bleak history of racial segregation that has, for the most part, gone untold.
The new TVNZ documentary No Māori Allowed sheds light on the town’s dark past and gives voice to kaumātua who've never before told their stories.
No Māori Allowed Photo: supplied
Listen to the full interview
Pukekohe's history of segregation was first unearthed by American academic Robert Bartholomew in his 2020 book of the same name.
It was more established in the township than any other place in New Zealand, says documentary producer Reikura Kahi.
"That’s because of the people who were in a position of power and the councils supported [it]," she tells Jesse Mulligan.
“That meant Māori weren’t allowed to go to the hairdressers, get their haircut, were only allowed in certain parts of the cinema, had a school specifically for Māori and also weren’t allowed to swim in the pool on certain days.”
Māori people weren’t allowed to do their shopping without a Pākehā person making the purchase for them, and didn’t have access to good healthcare, Kahi says.
In No Māori Allowed, kaumātua from Pukekohe, who are now in their 70s, tell their stories of segregation for the first time.
“It is about reclaiming that narrative and who’s telling our history, and why,” Kahi says.
“Of course, you go back to the confiscation of Māori land in the 1800s. A lot of pioneers were given land that was Māori land and Māori were pushed out of their homeland, so you have a lot of farmers and established families who have been there for generations.
“A lot of Māori whānau moved to Pukekohe to work in the gardens, to sustain and support their family and the conditions that they came to when they were working in the gardens was very poor housing, shacks.”
The documentary-makers faced resistance from some Pukekohe locals, Kahi says, but that wasn’t unexpected.
“With anything like this there’s always going to be pushback but I’m hopeful, and so are our kaumātua, kuia Māori that shared their stories... that we can get to a point of change and healing where both sides respect that, despite living through all of that trauma and pain and abuse, we can find a place where we can all heal, and all move forward.”
The kuia and kaumātua featured in No Māori Allowed are willing to do that, she says.
“It’s important for us to absolutely confront our past so that we ensure that we never repeat history and that our future generations, our children don’t have to ever live through any of this again and to get to a point where there is racial harmony and racial equality, and we understand where we are now.
“Let’s all talk about, let’s all talk about racism, let’s all talk about the importance of learning New Zealand history in our schools. We hope our future generation can move forward and way beyond racism.”
No Māori Allowed is screening on TVNZ+