Kua riro ki wīwī, ki wāwā:The causes and effects of Māori migration to Southland

The urbanisation of the Māori population after World War Two saw the rapid movement of a mainly rural people to a number of urban centres around the country. The social, economic and political push-pull factors involved in this migration flow have been described in a number of publications. This research is usually conducted within North Island locations, particularly Auckland, where the Māori population is considerably larger and the Māori population increase of urban centres more noticeable. Of little interest to those who researched this topic, but still duly noted, is the movement of North Island Māori to the South Island. As a result, there are only a few publications that mention the statistical changes that occurred in the Māori population of Southland and only a couple look at the social changes that ensued as a result. This research has been largely empirical and generalises about these people’s experiences based on the trends that have emerged from research based on North Island communities. This thesis addresses the gap in the research and locates itself firmly in Southland. It looks at the causes of Māori migration to Southland during the mid-twentieth century from the perspective of the migrants involved. A number of Māori who moved to Southland chose to stay, become permanent residents, and raise their children there. Their decision to settle permanently in Southland and live outside of their tribal area affected their children’s Māori identity development. This thesis therefore also looks at the effects of this migration flow on the Māori identity development of the children of North Island Māori migrants. These children all have one Māori and one non-Māori parent. They described their upbringing as largely Pākehā; reflective of the different Southland communities they each grew up in. The transfer of Māori cultural knowledge from their parents was minimal and regular return visits to their tribal area for the majority did not occur or were irregular at best. Most of the participants did not grow up within Māori social institutions that foster Māori identity. However, when they began socialising outside of their family network they began being defined and stereotyped ethnically with mixed results on each of the participants’ attitudes towards their Māori identity. Comfort was found amongst peers whose socio-cultural background reflected their own. It was within these friendships that they reconciled being Māori with their reality of growing up in Southland. Other studies tend to look at migration and identity as two separate areas of study. This thesis uses interviews combined with secondary literature to investigate how one has impacted on the other. The research conducted here is qualitative in that it allows me to enter the subjective world of my participants and gain descriptions about their experiences that I would not be able to achieve using any other method. There are a number of studies on migration and identity development that use large cohorts of participants from which to draw out similarities or differences to theoretical constructs. This thesis differs in that a narrow sample has been selected to focus on individuals and their life narratives. The first part of this thesis consists of four chapters. Chapter One gives an introduction of Southland as the geographic and demographic landscape in which this research takes place. Chapter Two provides a theoretical understanding of the migration process in relation to Māori urbanisation within New Zealand, to the South Island and Southland. The following two chapters introduce four migrants, who all moved from small, rural North Island Māori communities to Southland in the 1960s, and three spouses. Chapter Three looks at the migrants’ experiences of migration, their integration into the Southland community, and their thoughts of return migration back to their home community. Chapter Four looks at the interracial marriages that took place and the experiences of both the migrants and their spouses. The second part of this thesis consists of five chapters. Chapter Five reviews literature as it pertains to the processes and factors involved in the construction of someone’s identity. It also looks at ethnic and mixed-ethnic identity development. Chapter Six investigates Māori identity formation and looks at aspects of Māori culture that are said to be the main contributors to the formation of a secure Māori identity. Chapter Seven introduces six children of Māori migrants and looks at the way in which the participants became aware of their Māori ethnicity, the input of their parents, their ethnic identity choices and the outcomes of their decision to identify as Māori. Chapter Eight looks at what role the participants’ whānau played in contributing to their Māori identity. The final chapter looks at the role the school environment played in assisting the participants to develop their Māori identity