Pages tagged with: mau movement

New Zealand was ill-equipped to cope with the Western Samoa mandate allocated by the League of Nations in 1920. The Mau movement's passive resistance culminated in the violence of ‘Black Saturday’, 28 December 1929, which left 11 Samoans and one New Zealand policeman dead.

By 1926, anti-New Zealand feeling was strong throughout Samoa.

In January 1928 Mau policeman, dressed in a uniform of a purple lavalava with a white stripe, began enforcing a sā - ban - on European stores in Apia.

One New Zealand policeman and up to 11 Samoans, including Tupua Tamasese Lealofi III, were killed in Apia on Black Saturday - 28 December 1929

On 4 June 2002 Prime Minister Helen Clark offered 'a formal apology to the people of Samoa for the injustices arising from New Zealand's administration of Samoa in its earlier years'.

Ceremony for the raising of the New Zealand flag at the Courthouse, Apia, Western Samoa. Photograph taken between 1935 and 1940

Cartoon showing relationship between NZ administration and Mau in Samoa in 1930

Six Mau supporters, five of whom are wearing the white stripe, pose in front of the camera

A series of images relating to the pursuit and arrest of Mau in January 1930

The lying in state of Tupua Tamasese Lealofi III, Samoa, 1929

Pall bearers and Mau police carrying the coffin of Tupua Tamasese Lealofi III

The leaders of the women's Mau; Mrs Tuimaliifano, Mrs Tamasese, Mrs Nelson, Mrs Faumuina, c1930

Group photograph of leaders and committee of the Women's Mau, 1930

Mau parade moving west along Beach Road, Apia, Samoa

Fale o Leoleo, Police station, Apia c 1930. A Lewis gun mounted on the balcony of this building fired over the heads of marchers on Black Saturday.

Map showing movements of Mau and Police on Black Saturday

This article from the Truth describes how Mau supporters were making a mockery of the New Zealand administration in Samoa.

A group of Mau supporters, photographed outside the premises of Morris Hedstrom Ltd in Samoa

Not all Samoans supported the Mau. Even Mau estimates suggest that, at the height of its popularity, at least one in ten Samoans supported the New Zealand administration.