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

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The child removal policies of the US, Canada and Australia have receivedsignificant attention from academics, researchers and activists. The lastcountry to be scrutinised for engaging in forcible transfer of children is NewZealand. Scholarship is non-existent, and due to the country's bicultural andegalitarian reputation, many historians of cultural genocide are under theimpression that New Zealand's settler-colonialism has been kind to Maori.However, a 2019 documentary revealed that the child removal practices ofcolonial barbarism are still taking place in New Zealand. Subsequentinvestigations show the shocking extent to the trauma inflicted on Maorifamilies; Maori babies and children are regularly "uplifted" by the statewithout notice and by using excessive force or coercion. Claims have sincebeen dismissed as part of a Maori tendency to "blame the Pakeha" (whitesettlers) for what some consider to be the "vices" of "contemporary Maoriculture." This thesis will investigate nineteenth and twentieth century racialdiscourse and legal technologies, to "dismantle the myths" that Maori arepredisposed to domestic violence and child abuse. It will discuss how forcibletransfer of children benefits the settler-colonial state, paying particularattention to the importance of genealogy and whanau to oral histories and thecultural traditions of Maori. This Social and Economic History project willassess the colonial period's contribution to contemporary practices of childremoval and the silencing of Maori whanau (families). Alongside socialwelfare data interpretation, this thesis will conduct oral history interviews,visual documentation, and insider participant observation to develop anexhibition.