Mark 101

SPECIAL STUDY THREE 2003

NEW ZEALAND IN THE 1950'S

KEY TOPIC: THE ORIGINS OF THE MAORI WOMEN'S WELFARE LEAGUE.

MY HYPOTHESIS:

A KEY CATALYST IN THE FORMATION OF THE MAORI WOMEN'S WELFARE LEAGUE WAS THE URBANISATION OF MAORI AFTER WORLD WAR TWO.

QUESTIONS:

WHAT WERE THE KEY PROBLEMS AMONGST MAORI THAT PRECIPITATED THE FORMATION OF THE MAORI WOMEN'S WELFARE LEAGUE?

WHAT DID IT AIM TO ACHIEVE?

The Maori Women's Welfare League (MWWL) was formed in September 1951 at a conference in Wellington organised by Maori women from all regions of New Zealand.

The League was formed to promote the health and welfare of Maori families. The timing of its formation is significant, because while the league's aims encompassed all Maori, the health and welfare problems encountered by Maori were highlighted by post-World War Two urbanisation.

The urbanisation of the Maori started to gather pace after World War Two. In 1936, 11.2% of Maori lived in urban areas - in 1951 this figure had doubled to 22.9 %. The main reasons for this movement into the cities were for Maori to take advantage of the employment and education opportunities that were otherwise unavailable to them in rural areas. Another factor promoting this urbanisation was that the growth in Maori population in the rural areas was too great for the local economy to support.

There were several problems to be faced by these newly-arrived Maori families. As well has having to adapt to an area previously unknown to them, they did not have the support of their whanau and tribe which had traditionally provided support in health matters and in general welfare. Also many Maori faced discrimination in employment, education and housing.

Those who did get jobs found that many of the jobs available did not offer much security, as many Maori were only qualified for unskilled or semi-skilled jobs. Therefore wages were not high and the cost of living in the cities was higher than in their rural communities.

However the money earned in these jobs was still greater than most Maori would have earned in the rural areas. So the city-based workers would often send money back to their extended family or whanau and, or whanau members would come and move to the same city, creating a "snowball effect" . This meant that the available income or housing would be stretched further. This created problems with finances, poor diet, high infant mortality, and cramped, unhygienic living conditions.

Traditionally in Maori society these problems were considered to be problems of the home and therefore in the domain of Maori women. Therefore the answer appeared to be an organisation composed of Maori women that would work with other Maori women, for Maori women.

The Maori Women's Welfare League was set up as a result of the conference held in September 1951. Whina Cooper, a prominent woman in the Maori community, was elected as the President of the League. She held this position for six years until 1957. The first thing that the League did was set up a constitution that set out its aims to enable them to help direct focus on the problems that the Maori were facing.

The Maori Women's Welfare League's aims tried to encompass all aspects of Maori family life in ways that tried to improve them, to promote a better understanding of the home and wellbeing of children and to provide a voice that spoke for all Maori women.

The main aims were "the promotion of all activities that would improve the position of Maori, particularly women and children, in the fields of health, education and welfare" .

The Maori Women's Welfare League was made up of three parts: local