Breaking up the Whanau : Child Removal and Cultural Genocide in Aotaeroa

The child removal policies of the US, Canada and Australia have received
significant attention from academics, researchers and activists. The last
country to be scrutinised for engaging in forcible transfer of children is New
Zealand. Scholarship is non-existent, and due to the country's bicultural and
egalitarian reputation, many historians of cultural genocide are under the
impression that New Zealand's settler-colonialism has been kind to Maori.
However, a 2019 documentary revealed that the child removal practices of
colonial barbarism are still taking place in New Zealand. Subsequent
investigations show the shocking extent to the trauma inflicted on Maori
families; Maori babies and children are regularly "uplifted" by the state
without notice and by using excessive force or coercion. Claims have since
been dismissed as part of a Maori tendency to "blame the Pakeha" (white
settlers) for what some consider to be the "vices" of "contemporary Maori
culture." This thesis will investigate nineteenth and twentieth century racial
discourse and legal technologies, to "dismantle the myths" that Maori are
predisposed to domestic violence and child abuse. It will discuss how forcible
transfer of children benefits the settler-colonial state, paying particular
attention to the importance of genealogy and whanau to oral histories and the
cultural traditions of Maori. This Social and Economic History project will
assess the colonial period's contribution to contemporary practices of child
removal and the silencing of Maori whanau (families). Alongside social
welfare data interpretation, this thesis will conduct oral history interviews,
visual documentation, and insider participant observation to develop an
exhibition.