January 04, 2015
Urbanisation at cost to iwi
They may have worked in Lambton Quay or Lower Hutt, but many Maori who migrated to Wellington decades ago still don’t consider Poneke home.
That’s one of Victoria University PhD candidate Erin Keenan’s findings from her research into the postwar Maori migration.
The Te Puni Kokiri policy analyst says there are people who have lived in the city for over 50 years who still don’t see themselves as being a person from Wellington.
"The fact that Maori still feel the need to deny this urbanisation-that they prioritise iwi identities over loyalty to a city – shows that the idea still carries some weight that urbanisation required the loss of iwi identities, despite evidence to the contrary," she says.
In her research she found a range of reasons Maori moved to Wellington and stayed.
Some people found they enjoyed meeting people from different iwi and backgrounds and found people to be friendly, while others described it as a time of loss, disconnection and detribalisation.
Ms Keenan was moved to tackle the topic after learning about her grandfather’s experience after demobilisation from the New Zealand Air Force at the end of WWII.
He returned not to Pungarehu but to New Plymouth, where he was a part of a rehabilitation scheme for Maori soldiers.
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