Dawn Raids apology: PM sorry for 'hurt and distress' of racially targeted policy

Saturday, 31 July 2021

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern gives 'unreserved apology' for racially targeted dawn raids of the 1970s.

Tears flowed freely at Auckland Town Hall as Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern officially apologised and expressed her Government’s “sorrow and regret” to the Pasifika community for the racially exploitative Dawn Raids of the 1970s.

The building was packed with Pacific Islanders and their families – many of them subjected to the infamous immigration policy authorised by the Labour and National governments in the 1970s – which saw police target suspected overstayers from the Pacific – but not from Europe and the United States.

The raids took place at homes, workplaces and even churches, and often led to prosecution and deportation, traumatising the Pasifika community, separating families and putting children in state care homes.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern apologised on behalf of the Government for the Dawn Raids that saw many Pacific overstayers deported and separated from their families.

Giving the apology, Ardern said while the events took place 50 years ago, the legacy and traumatic impact of them lived on in Pacific communities.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern arrives at Auckland Town Hall to officially apologise for the race-based Dawn Raids of the 1970s.

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People from across the Pacific community were represented at the Dawn Raids apology event.

The event was laced with spiritual and Pacific cultural symbolism from the very beginning, when Ardern was welcomed, and throughout as Samoan and Tongan hymns were sung.

The prime minister was accorded a karanga by Ngāti Whātua Orakei, a takalo (Niuen war challenge) by Niue men, and a pe’e, imene (chant and hymn) turou from Cook Islands.

One of the most significant parts of the apology was when Ardern was covered with traditional woven mats in a modified Samoan ifoga ceremony – a public act of self-humiliation, made as a form of apology by one group to another.

Jacinda Ardern said police racially exploited their power to demand people who “did not look like they came from New Zealand” to carry a passport at all times.

She was then uncovered in a fa’amāgaloga (act of forgiving), by Aupito Pupu Lolesio, whose home was dawn raided in the early hours of the morning in Ōtara, Falema’i Lesa Sega who won her citizenship in 1982 from the Privy Council, and Taimalieutu Papali’i Kiwi Tamasese, a descendant of Mau leaders imprisoned in Mt Eden by New Zealand.

This was a gesture of forgiveness from the Pacific for the Dawn Raids.

Delivering her apology, Ardern said: “It remains vividly etched in the memory of those who were directly impacted, it lives on in the disruption of trust and faith in authorities, and it lives on in the unresolved grievances of Pacific communities that these events happened and that to this day they have gone unaddressed.

Members from the Pacific community gathered in a packed Auckland Town Hall to witness the Government’s historic Dawn Raids apology.

“Today, I stand behalf of the New Zealand Government to offer a formal and unreserved apology to the Pacific communities for the discriminatory implementation of the immigration laws of the 1970s that led to the events of the Dawn Raids.

“The Government expresses its sorrow, remorse, and regret that the Dawn Raids and random police checks occurred and that these actions were ever considered appropriate.

“Our Government conveys to the future generations of Aoteaora that the past actions of the Crown were wrong and that the treatment of your ancestors was wrong. We convey to you our deepest and sincerest apology.”

Minister for Pacific Peoples Aupito William Sio, who previously recalled his own family’s experience of the raids when he was a teen, spoke of the forgiveness Pasifika people have as he accepted the apology on behalf of the Samoan community.

He presented framed written copies of the apology and promises from the Government to representatives from the Pacific, including to Tonga’s princess.

“It is done,” Sio said after the apology was made.

“But, this is part of a deep and longer conversations and one of the gifts that was offered tonight is a comprehensive history of the Dawn Raids, and we intend to ensure that our Pacific communities will have the opportunity to come forward to tell their stories,” he told reporters.

A tearful Tongan Princess Mele Sui'ilikutapu Kalanivalu Fotofili welcomed the apology and accepted the Government's efforts to right the “inhumane and unjust” treatment of her people.

She acknowledged some members of her community were on the wrong side of the law at the time, but said they should not have been subjected to such terror from police.

“This is the beginning of a caring, closer and better relationship between us. But, things could be better should the Government respond to the immigration needs of our community.

Minister for Pacific Peoples Aupito William Sio speaks after 'emotional' historic Government apology for the Dawn Raids.

“This is a dawn for my community and the Pacific community at large,” she said.

Toesulu Brown, a representative of the Samoan community who has taught the Samoan language in Auckland for more than 40 years, was full of emotion as she urged future leaders to learn from the mistakes of the past to ensure history was not repeated.

“I welcome what I've heard tonight from the Government in an effort to seek out how a new dawn can be found.

“You have come to apologise for something that did not happen under your watch - I thank you,” Brown said, addressing Ardern.

“Let us move forward together with the hope of a very bright future.”

As part of the apology, the Government also pledged $2.1m in scholarships for Pacific communities, and $1m in Manaaki short term training courses for people from Samoa, Tonga, Tuvalu and Fiji.

It will also fund school and kura resources for those who teach the history of the Dawn Raids, while Pacific artists and historians will get support to work with communities to develop a record of account of the Dawn Raids.

The Dawn Raids followed a boom period where migration from the Pacific Islands was encouraged to fill labour shortages.

But when the economy declined, the Pasifika community was demonised by politicians and media as the reason for the country’s social problems.

In targeting Pacific Islanders, people from Niue, Tokelau and the Cook Islands – all of whom had the legal right to live in New Zealand – were also caught in the Government’s net.