New date announced for official dawn raids apology

The Government will formally apologise for the 1970s Dawn Raids at a ceremony later this month.

The date for the rescheduled dawn raids apology will be on August 1 at the Auckland Town Hall. 

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced last month the Government would formally apologise for the 1970s dawn raids that targeted the Pacific community in New Zealand.

It was supposed to be held on June 26 in the Auckland Town Hall, however it was postponed due to the Wellington Covid scare, after the capital moved to Level 2 after a Covid positive traveller from Sydney visited. 

The Q+A panel of Sefita Hao’uli, Efeso Collins and Karanina Sumeo discussed the planned Dawn Raids apology.

Immigration officials targeted the homes of people from the Pacific Islands in the early hours of the morning, beginning in the 1970s in a crackdown on alleged "overstaying".

The policy followed a boom in jobs after World War II, where many people from the Pacific Islands were encouraged to come to New Zealand to fill roles in growing industries.

The Government will formally apologise for the 1970s Dawn Raids at a ceremony later this month.

The announcement of the formal apology saw Pacific People's Minister Aupito William Sio speak of the significance of restoring mana for the victims of the raids.

National’s leader told Breakfast the policy was “absolutely racist” and targeted at Pasifika people.

Sio, whose family moved to New Zealand in 1969 from Samoa, spoke of being dawn-raided, having "memories about my father being helpless".

"To have someone knocking at the door at the early hours with a flashlight in your face, disrespecting the owner of the home, with an Alsatian dog frothing at the mouth wanting to come in without any respect for the people living there."

Sio described it as "quite traumatising".

A new mural on the corner of Karangahape Road and Gundry Street pays tribute to the Black Panther Party and the Polynesian Panthers.

"The apology is about helping people heal. People who have been traumatised."

"I do not want my children and nieces and nephews to be shackled by that pain."

"We were invited to come to New Zealand. We responded to call to fill labour shortage. We were coming to aid a country," Sio said.

There have been calls for an apology for the raids recently, with petitions,  an open letter  and the  Human Rights Commission   joining the push for an apology .  

The PM acknowledged how traumatic Dawn Raids were for Pasifika people.

Social justice group the Polynesian Panthers protested the raids conducted nearly 50 years ago and this year continuing a  call for an apology

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