Maori as honorary members of the white tribe

Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History

Volumn 29, Issue 3, 2001, Pages 33-54

  Bennett, James ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF NEWCASTLE   (Australia)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 0035622929     PISSN: 03086534     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/03086530108583126     Document Type: Article

References (96)

1. Devanny, who became an activist for the Communist Party of Australia some time after her arrival in 1929, had much to say about race and ethnic relations in her writing and personal correspondence. Her biographer makes the apposite comment that Devanny betrayed a 'certain smugness about racial and ethnic relations in New Zealand'. In a manuscript entitled 'The Sex Life of the Maoris' she reveals a common, but anthropologically dubious, white New Zealand attitude to Maori as 'that noblest of races, the sons of Hawaiki'. Her Australian writing contains a good deal of social commentary on the degree of prejudice expressed against non-whites. The novel Cindie, for instance, which discusses the political and economic implications of repatriation of Melanesian cane workers and their substitution with white labour makes reference to the common expression of racism in the labour movement. Other works by Devanny such as Point of Departure and Travels in North Queensland infer a sharp distinction between the white Australian and New Zealand record on race and ethnic relations. Despite her force of commentary on Australian race relations, she, like many other early twentieth-century feminists and socialists, was sometimes racially unsound in her own views. See Carole Ferrier (ed.), Point of Departure: The Autobiography of Jean Devanny (Brisbane, 1986) and idem, Jean Devanny: Romantic Revolutionary (Melbourne, 1999).
2. Devanny, who became an activist for the Communist Party of Australia some time after her arrival in 1929, had much to say about race and ethnic relations in her writing and personal correspondence. Her biographer makes the apposite comment that Devanny betrayed a 'certain smugness about racial and ethnic relations in New Zealand'. In a manuscript entitled 'The Sex Life of the Maoris' she reveals a common, but anthropologically dubious, white New Zealand attitude to Maori as 'that noblest of races, the sons of Hawaiki'. Her Australian writing contains a good deal of social commentary on the degree of prejudice expressed against non-whites. The novel Cindie, for instance, which discusses the political and economic implications of repatriation of Melanesian cane workers and their substitution with white labour makes reference to the common expression of racism in the labour movement. Other works by Devanny such as Point of Departure and Travels in North Queensland infer a sharp distinction between the white Australian and New Zealand record on race and ethnic relations. Despite her force of commentary on Australian race relations, she, like many other early twentieth-century feminists and socialists, was sometimes racially unsound in her own views. See Carole Ferrier (ed.), Point of Departure: The Autobiography of Jean Devanny (Brisbane, 1986) and idem, Jean Devanny: Romantic Revolutionary (Melbourne, 1999).
3. Devanny, who became an activist for the Communist Party of Australia some time after her arrival in 1929, had much to say about race and ethnic relations in her writing and personal correspondence. Her biographer makes the apposite comment that Devanny betrayed a 'certain smugness about racial and ethnic relations in New Zealand'. In a manuscript entitled 'The Sex Life of the Maoris' she reveals a common, but anthropologically dubious, white New Zealand attitude to Maori as 'that noblest of races, the sons of Hawaiki'. Her Australian writing contains a good deal of social commentary on the degree of prejudice expressed against non-whites. The novel Cindie, for instance, which discusses the political and economic implications of repatriation of Melanesian cane workers and their substitution with white labour makes reference to the common expression of racism in the labour movement. Other works by Devanny such as Point of Departure and Travels in North Queensland infer a sharp distinction between the white Australian and New Zealand record on race and ethnic relations. Despite her force of commentary on Australian race relations, she, like many other early twentieth-century feminists and socialists, was sometimes racially unsound in her own views. See Carole Ferrier (ed.), Point of Departure: The Autobiography of Jean Devanny (Brisbane, 1986) and idem, Jean Devanny: Romantic Revolutionary (Melbourne, 1999).
4. For examples of the promotion of this image see: New Zealand Herald, 29 March 1886; 14 Nov. 1900: 7 June 1906; New Zealand Freelance, 13 Oct. 1900; Official Proceedings and Debates of Australasian Federation, 1890 (Melbourne, 1890), 125-6.
5. For examples of the promotion of this image see: New Zealand Herald, 29 March 1886; 14 Nov. 1900: 7 June 1906; New Zealand Freelance, 13 Oct. 1900; Official Proceedings and Debates of Australasian Federation, 1890 (Melbourne, 1890), 125-6.
6. For examples of the promotion of this image see: New Zealand Herald, 29 March 1886; 14 Nov. 1900: 7 June 1906; New Zealand Freelance, 13 Oct. 1900; Official Proceedings and Debates of Australasian Federation, 1890 (Melbourne, 1890), 125-6.
7. Historians of settler societies have debated whether the history of their respective society is essentially about race or class. While class was commonly viewed as a central dynamic propelling Australian society, the indigenous tradition was largely ignored until the 1970s. The emphasis has mostly operated in reverse in New Zealand historiography. See Donald Denoon, Settler Capitalism: The Dynamics of Dependent Development in the Southern Hemisphere (Oxford, 1983), 225; and James Bennett, 'Close Encounters of the Dissident Kind: Communism, Union "Militancy" and Trans-National Encounters, Australia and New Zealand', in D. Scobie and M. Crotty (eds.), Raiding Clio's Closet (Melbourne, 1997), 142-3.
8. Historians of settler societies have debated whether the history of their respective society is essentially about race or class. While class was commonly viewed as a central dynamic propelling Australian society, the indigenous tradition was largely ignored until the 1970s. The emphasis has mostly operated in reverse in New Zealand historiography. See Donald Denoon, Settler Capitalism: The Dynamics of Dependent Development in the Southern Hemisphere (Oxford, 1983), 225; and James Bennett, 'Close Encounters of the Dissident Kind: Communism, Union "Militancy" and Trans-National Encounters, Australia and New Zealand', in D. Scobie and M. Crotty (eds.), Raiding Clio's Closet (Melbourne, 1997), 142-3.
9. Francis G. Castles, The Working Class and Welfare: Reflections on the Political Development of the Welfare State (Sydney/Wellington, 1985), 58-9, 82-3.
10. Massey declared 'we recognise the Indians as fellow citizens, and we are going to treat them as such'. He also referred to the Pakeha treatment of Maori as equals in order to consolidate the case for New Zealand's record of racial equality. See Stenographic Notes of a Meeting of Representatives of Britain, the Dominions and India, June 1921, W.M. Hughes Papers, MS1538/25/560-61, National Library of Australia. Note the convergence between this argument and Jean Devanny's construction of 'an inferential refusal to recognise a colour line'.
11. Compare Reeves on Asian immigration: W.P. Reeves, 'Why I Proposed the "Undesirable Immigrants Exclusion Bill"', Review of Reviews for Australasia, 6:1 (1895), 40, with Reeves on the special relationship of New Zealand with Polynesia and the role of the Maori, reported in New Zealand Herald, 14 Nov. 1900.
12. Ann McGrath (ed.). Contested Ground: Australian Aborigines under the British Crown, (Sydney, 1995), 365.
13. For details of this mythology see M.P.K. Sorrenson, Maori Origins and Migrations: The Genesis of Some Pakeha Myths and Legends (Auckland, 1979).
14. Andrew Armitage, Comparing the Policy of Aboriginal Assimilation: Australia, Canada and New Zealand (Vancouver, 1995), 189-90.
15. Alan Ward, A Show of Justice: Racial 'Amalgamation' in Nineteenth-Century New Zealand (2nd ed., Auckland, 1995), 118.
16. Ibid., 56, 154, 218, 311.
17. See Patricia Grimshaw, 'A White Woman's Suffrage', in Helen Irving (ed.), A Woman's Constitution? Gender and History in the Australian Commonwealth (Sydney, 1996), 82-3, and Pat Stretton and Christine Finnimore, 'Black Fellow Citizens: Aborigines and the Australia Commonwealth Franchise', Australian Historical Studies, 25:101 (Oct. 1993), 530.
18. See Patricia Grimshaw, 'A White Woman's Suffrage', in Helen Irving (ed.), A Woman's Constitution? Gender and History in the Australian Commonwealth (Sydney, 1996), 82-3, and Pat Stretton and Christine Finnimore, 'Black Fellow Citizens: Aborigines and the Australia Commonwealth Franchise', Australian Historical Studies, 25:101 (Oct. 1993), 530.
19. Tom Clarke and Brian Galligan, '"Aboriginal Native" and the Institutional Construction of the Australian Citizen 1901-48'. Australian Historical Studies, 26:105 (Oct. 1995), 529 and 542-3.
20. For further discussion of this point see Grimshaw, 'A White Woman's Suffrage', 78, 84-5, 87.
21. For a comparative study between New Zealand, Australia and Canada see Armitage, Comparing the Policy of Aboriginal Assimilation, especially 195.
22. Kate Riddell, '"Improving" the Maori: Counting the Ideology of Intermarriage', New Zealand Journal of History (hereafter NZJH), 34:1 (April 2000), 81.
23. Toeolesulusulu Salesa. 'Half-Castes between the Wars: Colonial Categories in New Zealand and Samoa' NZJH, 34:1 (April 2000), 103-4.
24. For an in-depth theoretical engagement with this issue see Annette Hamilton, 'Fear and Desire: Aborigines, Asians and the National Imaginary', Australian Cultural History, 9 (1990), in 14-35. The colony of Queensland, where Aborigines were more populous than in other parts of Australia, introduced legislation in 1897 requiring white men to apply to marry Aboriginal women. Penalties of £50 or six months' gaol existed for sexual relations between Aboriginal women and non-Aboriginal men, and there were examples (until well into the twentieth century) of state/territory sanctions against intermarriage, inducing some couples to cross borders in Australia in order to marry. Full-blooded Aboriginal women, for example, were absolutely forbidden to marry white men in the Northern Territory in the 1920s and 30s. For further details, see Patricia Grimshaw et al., Creating a Nation (Melbourne, 1994), especially 287-8.
25. For an in-depth theoretical engagement with this issue see Annette Hamilton, 'Fear and Desire: Aborigines, Asians and the National Imaginary', Australian Cultural History, 9 (1990), in 14-35. The colony of Queensland, where Aborigines were more populous than in other parts of Australia, introduced legislation in 1897 requiring white men to apply to marry Aboriginal women. Penalties of £50 or six months' gaol existed for sexual relations between Aboriginal women and non-Aboriginal men, and there were examples (until well into the twentieth century) of state/territory sanctions against intermarriage, inducing some couples to cross borders in Australia in order to marry. Full-blooded Aboriginal women, for example, were absolutely forbidden to marry white men in the Northern Territory in the 1920s and 30s. For further details, see Patricia Grimshaw et al., Creating a Nation (Melbourne, 1994), especially 287-8.
26. Erik Olssen, 'Lands of Sheep and Gold', in Keith Sinclair (ed.), Tasman Relations (Auckland, 1987), 36.
27. For amplification of this argument, see Adrian Chan, 'NZ, the Australian Commonwealth and "Plain Nonsense"', NZJH, 3:1 (April 1969), 190-5.
28. See Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism (2nd ed., London, 1991), 6.
29. See J.O.C. Phillips, 'Musings in Maoriland - Or was there a Bulletin School in New Zealand?', Historical Studies, 20:81 (Oct. 1983), 534.
30. Angela Ballara, Proud to be White: A Survey of Pakeha Prejudice in New Zealand (Auckland, 1986), 54.
31. New Zealand Herald, 15 Feb. 1901, cited in Ballara, Proud to be White, 55.
32. New Zealand Herald, 15 Feb. 1901, cited in Ballara, Proud to be White, 55.
33. It should be remembered that the imposition of the Immigration Restriction Act of 1901 (which encapsulated the intent of the White Australia policy) by the new federal government represented a response to the widespread feeling that the immigration restriction legislation of the various Australian colonies had been too fragmented and ineffective to curb non-European, especially Chinese, immigration. The IR Act was designed to halt this trend. Furthermore, there was large-scale repatriation of Pacific Islanders to their homelands in the decade following the introduction of the Act.
34. See, for example, the argument outlined by Captain William Russell, one of the New Zealand representatives at the Federation Convention in 1890, in Debates of Australasian Federation, 1890, 125.
35. Colin McGeorge, 'Race, Empire and the Maori in the New Zealand Primary School Curriculum, 1880-1940', in J.A. Mangan (ed.), The Imperial Curriculum: Racial Images and Education in the British Colonial Experience (London, 1993), 71.
36. See Debates of Australasian Federation, 1890, 125.
37. For a particularly strident expression of this line of thinking, refer to New Zealand Freelance, 13 Oct. 1900.
38. The argument outlined by Captain William Russell, one of the New Zealand delegates, offers some revealing insights into New Zealand beliefs and perceptions. See Debates of Australasian Federation, 1890, 125.
39. Evidence given by George James Bruce, retail manager, NSW, for Good Bicycle Co., a New Zealander who had been resident in Australia for 15 months when interviewed, 'Report of the Royal Commission on the Desirability of Federation with Australia' (hereafter RRCF), AJHR A-4 (1901), 490.
40. Evidence given by James Young, bootmaker, member of Trades and Labour Council, Christchurch, RRCF, 225.
41. From Exhibit No. 28, Reasons for Not Federating - Precis of Resolutions submitted for Discussion and Carried Unanimously at the Meeting of the Otago Knights of Labour on 20 March 1901, RRCF, 225.
42. New Zealand Herald, 6 Sept. 1900.
43. See the evidence given by Turner in RRCF, 598.
44. Dept. of Labour and Employment, Immigration Division, Immigration Restriction Acts and Regulations. Amended Instructions to NZ Govt. Reps. in Australia, 9 Sept. 1951, Instructions to Overseas Posts, EA W 2619 32/3/63 Pt 1, New Zealand National Archives.
45. See Greg Ryan. Forerunners of the All Blacks: The 1888-89 New Zealand Native Team in Britain, Australia and New Zealand (Christchurch, 1993). Also see reports in the Melbourne papers, the Argus and the Age, of the following plays by R.P. Whitworth: Whakenau or The Pakeha Maori, 17 Sept. 1862, and The Maori Queen in the Age, 29 Sept. 1862.
46. See Greg Ryan. Forerunners of the All Blacks: The 1888-89 New Zealand Native Team in Britain, Australia and New Zealand (Christchurch, 1993). Also see reports in the Melbourne papers, the Argus and the Age, of the following plays by R.P. Whitworth: Whakenau or The Pakeha Maori, 17 Sept. 1862, and The Maori Queen in the Age, 29 Sept. 1862.
47. See Greg Ryan. Forerunners of the All Blacks: The 1888-89 New Zealand Native Team in Britain, Australia and New Zealand (Christchurch, 1993). Also see reports in the Melbourne papers, the Argus and the Age, of the following plays by R.P. Whitworth: Whakenau or The Pakeha Maori, 17 Sept. 1862, and The Maori Queen in the Age, 29 Sept. 1862.
48. See report in New Zealand Times, 24 Feb. 1905.
49. For further details refer to Barry York, Admissions and Exclusions: Asiatics and 'Other Coloured Races' in Australia: 1901 to 1946 (Canberra, 1995), 3.
50. NZPD, vol.123, 24 July 1903, 760.
51. Ibid.
52. New Zealand Herald, 29 Jan. 1908.
53. NZPD, 24 July 1903, 760.
54. New Zealand Times, 24 Feb. 1905, J 1905/308, NZNA.
55. See Instructions to all Collectors of Customs that 'Maoris are not to be tested under par (a) Sec (3) of IR Act', A1 1905/1456, Australian Archives.
56. Various reports in the New Zealand Times dated 24 Feb. and 3 March 1905, J 1905/308, NZNA.
57. John Williams, Politics of the New Zealand Maori: Protest and Co-operation, 1891-1910 (London, 1969), 150.
58. New Zealand Herald, 13 Aug. 1909.
59. On the issue of selectivity in welfare see Peter Beilharz, Mark Considine and Rob Watts, Arguing about the Welfare State: The Australian Experience (Sydney, 1992), especially 72-81.
60. For further details see Margaret McClure, A Civilised Community: A History of Social Security in New Zealand 1898-1998 (Auckland, 1998), especially 23-9.
61. Michael King, 'Between Two Worlds', in G.W. Rice (ed.), The Oxford History of New Zealand (2nd ed., Auckland, 1992), 303.
62. Ibid., 295.
63. Ibid., 303.
64. For a survey outlining the full range of responses by Maori see M.P.K. Sorrenson, 'Colonial Rule and Local Response: Maori Response to European Domination in New Zealand since 1860', Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History, 4:2 (Jan. 1976), 127-37.
65. G.V. Butterworth, 'A Rural Maori Renaissance?', Journal of the Polynesian Society (hereafter JPS), 81:2 (1972), 166.
66. Godley to Allen, 10 Jan. 1915, Letters of Colonel Sir James Allen, Minister of Defence and General Sir Alexander Godley, Commander 1NZEF, 1912-March 1915, WA 252 1, NZNA. Also see P.S. O'Connor, 'The Recruitment of Maori Soldiers, 1914-18', Political Science, 19:2 (1967).
67. See, for example, diary entry, 17 Nov. 1914 of Captain A.H. MacFarlane, 11th Battalion, A.I.F., 1D RL/435, Australian War Memorial and letter dated 17 Jan. 1915 by Trumpeter Carl Adelt, 1ALH Regt., A.I.F., 3DRL/7529, Australian War Memorial (AWM).
68. Letter (in diary form) dated 17 Nov. 1914 by Lieutenant J.M. Aitken, 11th Battalion, A.I.F., 1DRL/0013, AWM.
69. Entry dated 26 March 1915, extracts from the letters of the late Lieutenant A.H.T. Mountain, 16th Battalion, A.I.F., 2DRL/0095, AWM.
70. See Christopher Pugsley, Gallipoli: The New Zealand Story (Auckland, 1984), 13; and Joan Beaumont (ed.), Australia's War, 1914-18 (Sydney, 1995), 32.
71. See Christopher Pugsley, Gallipoli: The New Zealand Story (Auckland, 1984), 13; and Joan Beaumont (ed.), Australia's War, 1914-18 (Sydney, 1995), 32.
72. See King, 'Between Two Worlds', 298-9, and Butterworth, 'A Rural Maori Renaissance?', 165.
73. See King, 'Between Two Worlds', 298-9, and Butterworth, 'A Rural Maori Renaissance?', 165.
74. Malcolm Templeton, Human Rights and Sporting Contacts: New Zealand Attitudes to Race Relations in South Africa (Auckland, 1998), 6.
75. See, for example, NZPD, vol. 187, 14 Sept. 1920, 923, 925, 939.
76. See Scan Brawley, 'No "White Policy" in New Zealand: Fact and Fiction in New Zealand's Asian Immigration Record, 1946-78', NZJH, 27:1 (April 1993), 16-36.
77. NZPD, vol.187, 1920, 908-9.
78. Ibid., 930-1.
79. Butterworth, 'A Rural Maori Renaissance?', 160.
80. James Belich, 'Myth, Race, and Identity in New Zealand', NZJH, 31:1 (1997), 20.
81. To gauge the strength of opposition by Pakeha members to Asian immigration, see NZPD, vol.187. 14 Sept. 1920. especially 923, 925 and 939. One of the few enlightened speakers during the debate was the Australian-born leader of the New Zealand Labour Party, Harry Holland. An interesting parallel with Ngata in the 1920s is that of Winston Peters, leader of the New Zealand First Party in the 1990s. Peters campaigned on a strident anti-Asian immigration platform and in so doing reflected the views of many Maori leaders who viewed increased immigration, especially Asian immigration, as a second wave of colonisation.
82. For further details see New Zealand Dictionary of Biography, vol.3, 1901-1920 (Wellington, 1990-2000), 72-4. On the anthropology of Buck and Ngata see M.P.K. Sorrenson, 'Polynesian Corpuscles and Pacific Anthropology: The Home-Made Anthropology of Sir Apirana Ngata and Sir Peter Buck', JPS, 91:1 (1982), 7-27.
83. For further details see New Zealand Dictionary of Biography, vol.3, 1901-1920 (Wellington, 1990-2000), 72-4. On the anthropology of Buck and Ngata see M.P.K. Sorrenson, 'Polynesian Corpuscles and Pacific Anthropology: The Home-Made Anthropology of Sir Apirana Ngata and Sir Peter Buck', JPS, 91:1 (1982), 7-27.
84. Dominion, 8 Aug. 1908.
85. Ryan, Forerunners of the All Blacks, 50. Similarly, some missionaries in Australia fostered Aboriginal participation in cricket.
86. Daily Telegraph (Napier), 8 Sept. 1921, cited in Templeton, Human Rights and Sporting Contacts, 28.
87. Daily Telegraph (Napier), 8 Sept. 1921, cited in Templeton, Human Rights and Sporting Contacts, 28.
88. New Zealand Herald, 14 Sept. 1921, cited in ibid.
89. New Zealand Herald, 14 Sept. 1921, cited in ibid.
90. Ibid., 6.
91. David Pearson, A Dream Deferred: The Origins of Ethnic Conflict in New Zealand (Wellington, 1990), 80-1, 102.
92. Templeton, Human Rights and Sporting Contacts, 7.
93. Jeffrey Sissons, 'The Post-Assimilationist Thought of Sir Apirana Ngata: Towards a Genealogy of New Zealand Biculturalism', NZJH, 34:1 (April 2000), 47-59.
94. Report of Committee on Employment of Maoris on Market Gardens, AJHR, G-11 (1929), 4-5.
95. NZPD, vol. 248, 1934, 1181-2, cited in Ballara, Proud to be White, 109.
96. NZPD, vol. 248, 1934, 1181-2, cited in Ballara, Proud to be White, 109.