New book challenges urban migration history

New book challenges urban migration history with stories of community life

24 February 2015

A new account of Māori urban migration is being acclaimed as a ‘revelation’ and a work that ‘calls New Zealand history to attention’.

Panguru and the City: Kāinga Tahi, Kāinga Rua is the first book for award-winning historian Dr Melissa Matutina Williams. It recounts stories of the migration of communities surrounding Panguru, from Hokianga to Auckland, challenging the way the history of urban migration has been told before. The themes from the book are relevant to iwi around the country and to the growing Maori diaspora living in Australia.

“Panguru and the City tells the story of urban migration from the perspective of the community; how they established themselves in workplaces, churches and schools and built dynamic community networks across Auckland,” Dr Williams says.

The book explores migration in New Zealand at a time when it was not ‘cool to korero’, to carry eels in a shopping bag in public or to remain living in tribal back-blocks. It shows how migrants negotiated these forces.

“It also looks at the challenges they faced: the survival of their culture; embracing a new home while retaining a sense of who they are; and the socioeconomic issues, such as housing and unemployment, which shaped the way they approached migration.

“Māori urban migration was a huge social shift, but to the Panguru people it was also part of a wider life cycle. People are still moving from their homes in Hokianga to Auckland today, while others are moving back to where they were born. It’s a life-long process for people, not just a phenomenon of the last century.”

Ranginui Walker endorses the book as a ‘revelation’: “It offers important stories of urbanisation, cultural continuity, return and revitalisation.”

Aroha Harris says the book “dislodges long-held misconceptions of Māori urban migrations as permanent, one-way movements resulting in cultural dislocation – a distinctly Māori history that calls New Zealand history to attention.”

Dr Williams’ also contributed to Bridget Williams Books’ Tangata Whenua: An Illustrated History, which charts Māori history from ancient origins to present day.

“Tangata Whenua has great value in providing a platform for works like Panguru and the City to interact with the broader Māori history of the period,” adds Dr Williams. “It is important to view the history as a whole but also to have the chance to delve deeper into the valuable personal stories while they are still available to us.”

Panguru and the City: Kāinga Tahi, Kāinga Rua will be launched on 28 February 2015 at Waipuna marae, Whakarapa, Panguru.

ENDS

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