On 12 December, 1987, two years after it was blown up in Auckland Harbour, the Rainbow Warrior was scuttled to become a dive site. The boat was sunk off Matauri Bay, quite close to the Cavalli Islands.
The homosexual law reform campaign moved beyond the gay community to wider issues of human rights and discrimination. Extreme viewpoints ensured a lengthy and passionate debate before the Homosexual Law Reform Act was passed in July 1986.
The waterfront dispute of 1951 was the biggest industrial confrontation in New Zealand’s history. Although it was not as violent as the Great Strike of 1913, it lasted longer – 151 days, from February to July – and involved more workers.
For 56 days in July, August and September 1981, New Zealanders were divided against each other in the largest civil disturbance seen since the 1951 waterfront dispute. The cause of this was the visit of the South African rugby team – the Springboks.
The sinking of the Greenpeace protest ship Rainbow Warrior in Auckland in July 1985 shocked the nation. The incident galvanised an anti-nuclear movement that had emerged in opposition to both French nuclear tests at Mururoa and American warship visits to New Zealand.
On 'Black Tuesday', 12 November 1912, in the midst of a bitter six-month strike by miners in the small New Zealand goldmining town of Waihi, striker Fred Evans was killed - one of only two fatalities in an industrial dispute in New Zealand's history.
The third and final test would decide the series. Peter Burke, the All Blacks manager later described it as 'a magnificent game' and felt that the All Blacks had a 'job to do for New Zealand rugby and the rugby-loving people of New Zealand'. Once more, off-field events overshadowed the game itself.
Since rugby went professional in 1995 countries like Australia, England and France have challenged New Zealand and South Africa's claims to be the two powerhouses of world rugby.
Social and political groups for homosexuals in New Zealand began with the Dorian Society in the 1960s. By the next decade, sexual and social liberation was in the air.
Merle Hyland and Archibald Charles Barrington stand beside the 'Peace Caravan', a car covered in anti-war slogans, c.1946. Barrington was a prominent peace campaigner and wartime conscientious objector.
New Zealanders generally accepted the hardships and restrictions of the war years as necessary in the fight against fascism. After the war, though, many began to demand a greater share in the spoils of victory.
Keeping sport and politics separate was becoming increasingly difficult. In July 1969 HART (Halt All Racist Tours) was founded by Auckland University students with the specific aim of opposing sporting contact with South Africa.
In 1985 New Zealand was basking in its position as leader of the anti-nuclear movement. Then, on 10 July two explosions, set by French Secret Service agents, ripped through the hull of the Greenpeace flagship Rainbow Warrior, preventing it leaving for another protest campaign at Mururoa Atoll.
The All Blacks accepted an invitation to tour South Africa in 1976, a time when world attention was firmly fixed on the republic because of the Soweto riots.
Particularly in its early stages, New Zealand's involvement in the war enjoyed overwhelming public support in New Zealand. Opposition was confined to a small group of radical members of Parliament, religious leaders, and others who condemned the war as an aggressive act of imperialism designed to seize control of the Transvaal's gold mines.
New Zealand's limited military involvement in the Vietnam War was overshadowed by the wide-ranging debate about the conflict which erupted at home following the rise from the mid 1960s of an organised anti-Vietnam War movement.
The tour supporters were determined that the first Springbok visit to New Zealand since 1965 would not be spoiled. The anti-tour movement was equally determined to show its opposition to it.
Potatau set a boundary separating his authority from that of the governor: 'Let Maungatautari be our boundary. Do not encroach on this side. Likewise I am not to set a foot on that side.'
After the
first week of the Greymouth beer boycott it became clear that the Licensed
Victuallers' Association (LVA), supported by the breweries, was not going to
yield.
Waitangi Day in the 21st century has been linked more closely with New Zealand identity, and events have expanded beyond Waitangi itself. Protests have continued, and representatives of the Crown have not always been present at Waitangi.
During the 1980 Maori Language Week a march was held to demand that the Maori language have equal status with English. Another seven years passed before it became an official language of New Zealand.
Members of Campaign Against Nuclear Warships (CANWAR) stand aboard the yacht Phoenix in Wellington Harbour while awaiting the arrival of the USS Longbeach in 1976.
In Hamilton the protestors occupying the pitch had chanted 'The whole world is watching'. The same applied to New Zealand as a nation. Some believed the tour was an opportunity to address racism in New Zealand and show solidarity with the oppressed black majority in South Africa.
'Can't understand all this fuss they're making over radiation!' On 4 February 1985 the New Zealand Labour government refused the USS Buchanan entry on grounds that the United States would neither confirm nor deny that the ship had nuclear capability.
A number of Working Men's Clubs (WMCs) had been
established in major urban areas since the late 19th century, but there were
none on the West Coast. The beer boycott provided a catalyst for new debate.
The word 'FAG' was scrawled on the floor of the Lesbian and Gay Archives by arsonists before they set fire to the premises. There was an upsurge in anti-gay activity during the campaign; bashings of gay men became more common.
The watersiders’ militancy had isolated them from most unionists and Walter Nash’s Labour Party Opposition sat uncomfortably on the fence, denouncing government repression but refusing to back either side.
The central theme of opposition to sporting contact with South Africa was opposition to apartheid. This protest took many forms and involved many parts of New Zealand society from church groups to trade unions and student bodies, including school-age children, as shown here.
A charismatic ex-soldier, orator and propagandist, John A. Lee was a
dynamic figure in the Labour Party from the 1920s until 1940, when he
was expelled for attacking the leadership of M.J. Savage.
General issue New Army riot baton thought to have been used during Japanese
Occupation Force (J Force) operations 1946-1948 and the 1951 waterfront
dispute.
Fred Evans' violent death during the 1912
Waihi miners' strike made this otherwise obscure figure into a martyr of the
New Zealand labour movement. He remains one of only two people to be killed
during an industrial dispute in this country's history.
Labour Day, a public holiday in New Zealand since 1900, is a suitable occasion to
pay tribute to Samuel Parnell, who achieved fame as the founder of the eight-hour
working day in New Zealand. Parnell famously fought for this right when working as a carpenter at Petone in early 1840.
Te Rarawa leader and woman of mana, Dame Whina Cooper spent her whole life fighting for Maori land rights. As an 80-year old she led 5,000 Maori land protest marchers as they walked from Te Hapua (in the far north) to Parliament, arriving on 13 October 1975.
The Wellington-based band Riot 111 played on the back of a truck outside Avalon studios to protest against Television New Zealand's refusal to screen the video clip for their single 'Writing on the wall'.
Herbs are considered pioneers of the Pacific reggae sound. Their 1982 hit 'French letter', questioning French nuclear testing in the South Pacific, expressed the country's anti-nuclear stance.
As Parliament contemplates building the Beehive a century after moving to Wellington, protest against New Zealand's involvement in the Vietnam War mounts and is felt at Parliament.
A 1981 All Black, Doug Rollerson, and flour-bomb pilot Marx Jones provide opposing views on the tour in this 2006 interview. Both are adamant that they were right in the stance they took at the time.
The Poverty Bay team travelled to the game in the back of a meat truck to avoid detection by protestors. This set the pattern for the remainder of the tour, with each side trying to outsmart the opposition on game day.
The decade after 1951 was generally a period of quiet prosperity and stability in New Zealand. However, in 1955 a group of Nelson women attracted international attention when they staged a remarkable sit-in protest against the government's decision to close the local railway line.
This case study examines New Zealand's involvement in the nuclear debate of the 1970s and 1980s, culminating in a breakdown of the ANZUS alliance in 1985. With particular emphasis on French nuclear testing in the Pacific and the nuclear ships row, this case study will provide teachers with: Most of the activities can be completed with reference to the feature Nuclear Free New Zealand.
This extract is from 'What a difference between a fish and a woman', which was an address given by the president of the Women's Franchise League in Dunedin.
This is the text of a leaflet published by the Women's Christian Temperance Union in May 1888, which was sent to every member of the House of Representatives.
SIR, – I would like, through the medium of your columns, to ask 'Polly Plum' to state in a few short petty sentences, without any of that circumlocution which characterises her letters, what she demands as 'Women's rights'?
Te Roopu o te Matakite leader Mr Whakataka greeting the acting speaker, Hon Jonathon Hunt, with a challenge before the steps of Parliament, 20 October 1975
David Lange speaks at the televised Oxford Union debate in 1985. He successfully argued the proposition that 'nuclear weapons are morally indefensible'.
The law reform campaign gained a high profile through marches, meetings and extensive media coverage. Street marches in Wellington drew several thousand supporters of law reform, including this group with their placard 'What are you afraid of?'
Around 5000 anti-tour protestors marched on Rugby Park in Hamilton. They tore down a perimeter fence just before kick-off, and about 350 protestors invaded the pitch.
The Citizens' All Black Tour Association, of which Ngai Tahu leader Frank Winter was a prominent member, campaigned to stop the selection of a racially based All Black touring team with the slogan 'No Maoris – No Tour'.
This was a tour of New Zealand's provincial heartland – to the homes of grassroots rugby – but the 1981 Springbok tour, which began in Gisborne on 22 July, pitched New Zealanders against each other.
Looking back, the period from 1940 to 1960 is often seen as a 'golden age' of stability, consensus and prosperity in New Zealand, and in many ways it was. However, society was deeply divided on matters such as pacifism, class and ideology, and regional interests, and many New Zealanders were prepared to stand up for what they believed in.
During the 1930s Depression the unemployed gathered at Parliament to express their feelings. Here Prime Minister George Forbes addresses the crowd, about 1932.
A large crowd protesting about the Security Intelligence Bill gathers in Parliament grounds in 1977. The nearly completed Beehive looms in the background.
