The Queen and the Maori People - The Royal Visit, 1953-54

• The Royal Visit, 1953-54
• The Popularity of the Tour
• The Queen and the Maori People
• A Pastoral Paradise
• A Loyal People
• A Great Place to Bring Up Children
• Itinerary
• Remembering the Royals
• Later Royal Visits
• Image and Media Gallery
  View all images, sound, and films in this feature

The Queen and the Maori people

For many Maori the Royal Visit raised important issues about their place in New Zealand.

• One reception or many?: Pakeha New Zealanders wished to show off to the Queen and to the world the fact that New Zealand 'had the best race relations in the world'. By this they meant that Maori participated fully in New Zealand's British way of life. Maori culture provided no more than some exotic colour to the country's landscape. Pakeha administrators were not interested in showing off distinct tribal differences. So initial plans for the tour proposed one Maori reception at Rotorua under the control of the Arawa. This differed from the plans for the 1949 tour when five provincial Maori gatherings had been planned. As E. B. Corbett, the Pakeha Minister of Maori Affairs, noted, 'So far as the Queen herself is concerned they will just be the Maori people. She will not be concerned to know from what tribes they have come.' When Maori expressed concern at this blurring of tribal difference, there was a concession that token Maori representatives could be present at all local receptions (which usually meant one or two), but there was still wide criticism of the plans.
• Waitangi: Maori were very critical of the omission of Waitangi from the itinerary. Faced with 'difficulties from a racial angle', it was agreed to add a visit to Waitangi; but it was not conceived as a full Maori welcome so much as a brief visit to a historic place with both Maori and Pakeha involvement in the brief ceremony.
• Rotorua: Maori objected to the brief time allowed for the main welcome at Rotorua and the fact that only 200 official visitors from other tribes would be invited. In the end the time was extended and accommodation provided for 3500 from other iwi.
• Turangawaewae: Turangawaewae was the marae of the Maori King at Ngaruawahia. The King Movement had been the centre of opposition to Pakeha authority in the New Zealand Wars. But under the leadership of Te Puea the Waikato people had sought to affirm their loyalty to the Empire and her soldiers had fought in World War 2. Te Puea had long hoped that royalty might visit Turangawaewae to signal this reconciliation and a visit was included in the plans for the 1949 tour. But Ngaruawahia was not included in the 1953 itinerary; and although the Queen and Duke were scheduled to drive past the gateway to the marae, the Government resisted all appeals to include a visit. Despite the rebuffs the King movement practised their waiata and printed a programme. It was not until the morning of the event on 30 December that a decision was taken for the monarch to pay a visit. She had intended to stay for three minutes and to do no more than get out of the car. But the sight of a pathway of mats edged with red, white and blue flowers proved irresistible. The Queen and Duke walked past the black-robed kuia, garlands of fern in their hair, and entered Mahinarangi, the carved meeting house. There was singing, and chanting and haka, and at the end 100 warriors in two war canoes dipped their paddles in the Waikato River. The whole visit took 17 minutes.

Next page: A Pastoral Paradise