Once a Panther: The revolutionary Polynesians who stopped the dawn raids
Friday, 18 June 2021
A group of revolutionaries, ready to risk their freedom with a new guerilla tactic, left their working-class neighbourhood under cover of darkness with one goal in mind – ending the dawn raids.
The Polynesian Panthers were responding to calls from the community to stop an oppressive government striking fear through their community with its race-based immigration policies.
“We were nervy as hell and pumped full of adrenaline,” Tigilau Ness recalled during an episode of Stuff’s latest podcast Once a Panther.
“We were prepared to get arrested, prepared to fight.”
**READ MORE:
* Polynesian Panthers: Radical group celebrates 50 years of activism in Aotearoa
* Dawn raids on overstayers still happening, despite Government apology to Pasifika
* Calls for residency pathways follow dawn raids apology announcement
**
In 1976, New Zealand police and immigration officials stormed the homes, workplaces and even churches of Pasifika people, searching for those who had overstayed their visas.
The practice followed a boom period where migration from the Pacific Islands was encouraged to fill labour shortages. But when the economy declined, the Pasifika community was demonised by politicians and media due to the country’s social problems.
When the community asked a radical activist group, the Polynesian Panther Party, what they would do about it, the response was to call on their military wing.
The plan: Drive out to the affluent areas of Auckland before dawn with loud hailers and spotlights, and demand government ministers come out of their homes and produce their passports.
“If you’re going to come in our area and dawn raid us, this is what’s going to happen – we’ll come out to you,” Ness said.
This creative approach to resistance and what happened once they reached the ministers’ homes is detailed in Stuff’s latest podcast, Once a Panther.
Once a Panther is a podcast about the work of the Polynesian Panther Party, a New Zealand-based activist group inspired by the Black Panthers in the United States.
They fought against racism and an oppressive state hell-bent on scapegoating Pacific Islanders to gain political favour.
Following the raids, the group continued to campaign for an apology. On Monday, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced the Government will formally apologise to the Pasifika community for the race-based dawn raids of the 1970s.
Ardern said police “racially exploited” a power they had to demand passports or visas from people at random, and told people who “did not look like they came from New Zealand” to carry a passport at all times – which was unacceptable.
Minister for Pacific Peoples Aupito William Sio said the raids personally traumatised his family when he was a teen. His father, who had recently bought his house, was helpless as police raided the home.
However, on Wednesday, Stuff revealed the practice remains in use by Immigration New Zealand to round up overstayers, most of whom are Pasifika.
Immigration NZ confirmed that between May 2020 and May 2021, 223 raids were conducted at private addresses – 19 of which were between 6am and 7am.
Immigration NZ was not immediately able to provide a breakdown by ethnicity of those 223 raids but said later that the early raids led to the deportation of 36 people – most Chinese nationals, none Pasifika.
Two previous government policies have met the criteria for formal apologies: The Chinese poll tax and the injustices arising from New Zealand’s administration in Samoa.
The first five episodes of Once a Panther can be found on Stuff or through podcast apps, including Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Deezer or via an RSS feed.