New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern gave a formal apology Sunday to Pacific peoples over historic racist policing.
The apology concerned the Dawn Raids, a government initiative to deport persons for immigration offenses during the 1970s. Ardern drew attention to how the Dawn Raids involved physical removal of persons targeted by the raids and verbal mistreatment.
The policing disproportionately targeted Pacific peoples. In 1986, the country’s Race Relations Conciliator investigated the Dawn Raids. The Conciliator found that 86 percent of the prosecutions related to the Dawn Raids prosecuted Pacific peoples despite Pacific peoples comprising only approximately 33 percent of persons whose permits had expired.
Ardern noted, “[t]here were no reported raids on any homes of people who were not Pacific; no raids or random stops were exacted towards European people.”
Ardern acknowledged the Dawn Raids were not mere enforcement of immigration laws. She acknowledged they “went well beyond that.” They were discriminatory, they involved heavy racial profiling, and they made “[w]hole communities felt targeted and [terrorized].”
In the apology, Ardern noted New Zealand’s expectation that human rights are respected. However, she said that in the case of the Dawn Raids, these expectations were not met. The country’s current laws explicitly prohibit discrimination, particularly by virtue of the Human Rights Act 1993.
The impact of the Dawn Raids on Pacific communities has included deep cultural trauma which has continued over the decades. The government had not apologized to Pacific peoples prior to Sunday’s apology.
Ardern said:
The Government expresses its sorrow, remorse, and regret that the Dawn Raids and random police checks occurred and that these actions were ever considered appropriate. … We also [apologize] for the impact that these events have had on other peoples, such as Māori and other ethnic communities, who were unfairly targeted and impacted by the random Police checks of the time.
In addition to the apology, Ardern announced the government will provide millions in scholarship money to Pacific communities. The government will also provide schools with educational resources about the Dawn Raids and work with Pacific artists and historians to put together a historical record of account concerning the Dawn Raids.
