Young Māori Party

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The Young Māori Party was a New Zealand organisation dedicated to improving the position of Māori. It grew out of the Te Aute Students Association, established by former students of Te Aute College in 1897. It was established as the Young Māori Party in 1909. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6]

New Zealand Constitutional monarchy in Oceania

New Zealand is a sovereign island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. The country geographically comprises two main landmasses—the North Island, and the South Island —and around 600 smaller islands. New Zealand is situated some 2,000 kilometres (1,200 mi) east of Australia across the Tasman Sea and roughly 1,000 kilometres (600 mi) south of the Pacific island areas of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga. Because of its remoteness, it was one of the last lands to be settled by humans. During its long period of isolation, New Zealand developed a distinct biodiversity of animal, fungal, and plant life. The country's varied topography and its sharp mountain peaks, such as the Southern Alps, owe much to the tectonic uplift of land and volcanic eruptions. New Zealand's capital city is Wellington, while its most populous city is Auckland.

Māori people indigenous Polynesian people of New Zealand

The Māori are the indigenous Polynesian people of New Zealand. Māori originated with settlers from eastern Polynesia, who arrived in New Zealand in several waves of canoe voyages some time between 1250 and 1300. Over several centuries in isolation, the Polynesian settlers developed a unique culture, with their own language, a rich mythology, and distinctive crafts and performing arts. Early Māori formed tribal groups based on eastern Polynesian social customs and organisation. Horticulture flourished using plants they introduced; later, a prominent warrior culture emerged.

Te Aute College

Te Aute College is a school in the Hawke's Bay region of New Zealand. It opened in 1854 with twelve pupils under Samuel Williams, an Anglican missionary, and nephew and son-in-law of Bishop William Williams. It has a strong Māori character.

Contents

While the Young Māori Party had political intentions, it did not function as a political party as they are generally understood. [7] The Young Māori Party's members either acted as independents or joined an existing party, such as the New Zealand Liberal Party. In most respects, the Young Māori Party is best understood as a club or association, not a united electoral bloc. Anthropologist and author Toon Van Meijl said of the group "the Young Maori Party's programme generated a basic division within Maori society between a relatively small educated elite and a predominantly illeratr mass of poor people". [8]

The New Zealand Liberal Party was the first organised political party in New Zealand. It governed from 1891 until 1912. The Liberal strategy was to create a large class of small land-owning farmers who supported Liberal ideals, by buying large tracts of Māori land and selling it to small farmers on credit. The Liberal Government also established the basis of the later welfare state, with old age pensions, developed a system for settling industrial disputes, which was accepted by both employers and trade unions. In 1893 it extended voting rights to women, making New Zealand the first country in the world to enact universal female suffrage.

Membership

The membership of the Young Māori Party consisted primarily of younger Māori who had received a European-style education. Many were from the East Coast or the Bay of Plenty. Prominent members included James Carroll, Paraire Tomoana, Āpirana Ngata, Te Rangi Hīroa (who was a founding member), [4] and Maui Pomare. The most important concern of the group was the improvement of Māori health and welfare. [9] [10] [11]

Bay of Plenty Region in North Island, New Zealand

The Bay of Plenty is a large bight in the northern coast of New Zealand's North Island. It stretches from the Coromandel Peninsula in the west to Cape Runaway in the east, a wide stretch of some 259 km of open coastline. The Bay of Plenty Region is situated around this body of water, also incorporating several large islands in the bay. The bay was named by James Cook after he noticed the abundant food supplies at several Māori villages there, in stark contrast to the earlier observations he had made in Poverty Bay.

James Carroll (New Zealand politician) New Zealand politician

Sir James Carroll, known to Māori as Timi Kara, was a New Zealand politician of Irish and Ngāti Kahungunu (Māori) descent. Beginning his career as an interpreter and land agent, Carroll was elected to the Eastern Maori seat in 1887. He was acting Colonial Secretary from 1897 to 1899. He was the first Māori to hold the cabinet position of Minister of Native Affairs, which he held between 1899 and 1912. He was held in high regard within the Liberal Party and was acting prime minister in 1909 and 1911.

Paraire Tomoana Māori leader

Paraire "Friday" Henare Tomoana was a Māori political leader, journalist, historian, sportsman, and lyricist of the Ngāti Kahungunu and Ngāi Te Whatu-i-Apiti tribes. Born either in Waipatu or Pakowhai near Hastings, he was the son of Henare Tomoana, the principal chief of the Heretaunga region and Member of Parliament for the Eastern Māori electorate. He was educated at Te Aute College and was a member of the Young Māori Party, an association of alumni from the college that dominated the Māori political landscape in the early 20th century.

Most members of the Party believed that in order to prosper, Māori needed to adopt European ways of life, particularly Western medicine and education. At times, especially earlier in their careers, they offended older and more traditional Māori by attempting to abolish traditional practices. Later they developed more sensitivity and tended to present Western ways as similar to pre-European traditions. Ngata in particular also realised that Māori culture was in danger of being corrupted or swamped by European culture, and encouraged the revival of many Māori arts and crafts, such as kapa haka and carving. He also recorded many waiata and other forms of Māori literature, ensuring its preservation.

Kapa haka Māori performing art

Kapa haka is the term for Māori performing arts and literally means to form a line (kapa) and dance (haka). Kapa haka is an avenue for Māori people to express and showcase their heritage and cultural Polynesian identity through song and dance.

Traditional Māori music, or Te Pūoro Māori is composed or performed by Māori, the native people of New Zealand, and includes a wide variety of folk music styles, often integrated with poetry and dance.

Loss of members

As it was a group of like-minded politicians rather than a true party, the Young Māori Party did not survive the retirement, defeat and deaths of its members. Hiroa left parliament in 1914, and by 1930 Carroll and Pomare had both died. Ngata remained in parliament until 1943, when he was defeated by Labour-Ratana candidate Tiaki Omana.

Tiaki Omana New Zealand politician

Tiaki Omana, also known by the English name Jack Ormond, was a New Zealand rugby union player and politician. He won the Rātana Movement's fourth Maori electorate of Eastern Maori in 1943 from Āpirana Ngata who had held it since 1905. He was of aristocratic Ngāti Rongomaiwahine descent and was also a grandson of John Davies Ormond, first Superintendent of Hawke's Bay.

New Māori

The Party was widely admired by Pakeha, who saw their programmes as advancing the Maori race, and by contemporary Māori, who benefitted from their initiatives and admired their ability to work within Pakeha systems. From the 1970s, however, a new generation of activist Māori began to see the Young Māori Party as 'sell outs' who had swallowed the myth of European cultural superiority. They believed that the Party was mistaken in believing that if Māori adopted European ways, they would be treated as equals. Recently this perception has been revised by historians such as Ranginui Walker and James Belich, who emphasise the achievements of the Party, especially Ngata, and stress that their strategy of co-operation was effective in the context of its time.

Ranginui Joseph Isaac Walker was a New Zealand academic and writer of Māori and Lebanese descent.

James Belich (historian) New Zealand historian

James Christopher Belich, ONZM, is a New Zealand historian, known for his work on the New Zealand Wars and on New Zealand history more generally. One of his major works on the 19th-century clash between Māori and Pākehā, the revisionist study The New Zealand Wars (1986), was also published in an American edition and adapted into a television series and DVD.

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References

  1. ↑ Theunissen, Steve (2003). The Maori of New Zealand. Lerner Publishing Group. p. 20. ISBN   0822506653 . Retrieved October 1, 2015.
  2. ↑ Hill, Richard S. (2004). State Authority, Indigenous Autonomy: Crown-Māori Relations in New Zealand/Aotearoa 1900-1950. Victoria University Press. p. 46-268. ISBN   0864734778 . Retrieved October 1, 2015.
  3. ↑ Campbell, Ian C. (1989). A History of the Pacific Islands. University of California Press. p. 158. ISBN   0520069013 . Retrieved October 1, 2015.
  4. 1 2 Werry, Margaret. The Tourist State: Performing Leisure, Liberalism,, and Race in New Zealand. University of Minnesota Press. p. 27-108. ISBN   1452932794 . Retrieved October 1, 2015.
  5. ↑ Sorrenson, M. P. K. (2014). Ko te Whenua te Utu / Land is the Price: Essays on Maori History, Land and Politics. Auckland University Press. p. 105-216. ISBN   1775587010 . Retrieved October 1, 2015.
  6. ↑ Ilott, J. M. A. (May 1946). "Meet My Countrymen - The Maoris". 67 (5). Rotary International: 22. Retrieved 1 October 2015.
  7. ↑ Metge, Joan (2013). Rautahi: The Maoris of New Zealand. Routledge. pp. 36–282. ISBN   1136548092 . Retrieved October 1, 2015.
  8. ↑ Carey, Jane; Lydon, Jane (2014). Indigenous Networks: Mobility, Connections and Exchange. Routledge. pp. 185–190. ISBN   1317659325 . Retrieved October 1, 2015.
  9. ↑ Gilson, Richard Philip (1980). The Cook Islands, 1820-1950. University of the South Pacific. p. 126. ISBN   0705507351 . Retrieved October 1, 2015.
  10. ↑ Milen, Robert A. (1991). Aboriginal Peoples and Electoral Reform in Canada, Volume 9. Dundurn Press. p. 95. ISBN   1459719026 . Retrieved October 1, 2015.
  11. ↑ Neilson, Mary; Collins, Matthew (2004). Going to Live in New Zealand. How To Books Ltd. p. 8. ISBN   1857039653 . Retrieved October 1, 2015.
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