Today in History

1936 Ratana and Labour seal alliance

The alliance between the Ratana Church and the Labour Party was cemented at an historic meeting between Tahupotiki Wiremu Ratana and Prime Minister Michael Joseph Savage on 22 April 1936.

In 1928 T.W. Ratana announced his intention to enter politics, referring to the four Maori seats as the ‘four quarters’ of his body. He aimed to win these seats through the voting power of his followers, who were said to number 40,000 by 1934.

In 1932 Eruera Tirikatene became the first Ratana MP when he won a by-election for Southern Maori. He was instructed to support the then Labour opposition. Ratana favoured the Labour Party because it had consulted his supporters when devising its Maori policy. Labour enjoyed a landslide election victory in 1935 and the Ratana movement won a second seat, Western Maori.

At the 1936 meeting Ratana presented Savage with four symbolic gifts. Three huia feathers, representing Maori, protruded from a potato, which symbolised the land taken from Maori, leaving them unable to grow the staple crop. A pounamu hei tiki represented Maori mana, which had also been lost. A broken gold watch handed down to Ratana by his grandfather represented the broken promises of the Crown. A pin with a star and crescent moon was the symbol of the Ratana church, Tahu o te Maramatanga. It is said that these items had a profound impact on Savage to the extent that when he died in 1940 they were buried with him.

In 1943 the Ratana-Labour alliance succeeded in capturing all ‘four quarters’ when Tiaki Omana defeated Sir Apirana Ngata for the Eastern Maori seat. Labour was to hold all of the Maori seats until 1993.

Image: T.W. Ratana (See full image on Timeframes)