Dawn Raids apology event in Auckland postponed due to alert level change

Wednesday, 23 June 2021

Pacific Peoples Minister Aupito William Sio talks about his family's experience of the dawn raids.

The official apology for the Dawn Raids has been postponed due to the Covid-19 alert level change.

Last week, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced the Government would formally apologise to the Pasifika community for the race-based Dawn Raids of the 1970s.

The ceremony was due to take place on Saturday evening in Auckland, but has been delayed.

Minister Sio gets emotional as he talked about his Dawn Raid experiences following the apology announcement.

Ministers were due to travel from Wellington for the event.

* Dawn Raid apology: Former detective recalls 'worst part of his career'

* Call for New Zealand government to issue Dawn Raid apology

Even at the time, the Dawn Raids were controversial.

During Wednesday’s press conference, Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins said Government officials would not be attending any large events around the country.

This is in line with the advice for Wellingtonians to “take their alert level with them” if they leave the capital.

The event was due to take place at Auckland Town Hall.

Auckland was chosen for the ceremony because it was where most of the raids took place.

A new date has not yet been set with the event, with organisers saying it would be communicated in due course.

Community advocate Lisa Meto Fox told Stuff on Wednesday the delay was an opportunity to make the apology more accessible and more meaningful to the Pacific community.

She said the invite-only town hall event – with a livestream for people to tune in to from home – was not culturally appropriate, considering the values of face-to-face communication.

“To me, there needs to be a process before the apology of hearing from the communities, hearing from those who were directly dawn raided or who were impacted,” Meto Fox said.

“All Pacific people and many Māori people were living in that fear and I think there should be either a royal commission of inquiry or a listening service, something where Government officials and members of Government go around the country and face up to all the people that want to be heard.

“Otherwise we don’t even know what the extent of the damage done is.”

Meto Fox, who is a Samoan-Pākehā lawyer and union organiser, said she had been excited to take her entire aiga (family) to the apology, and was disappointed to learn the only way they could be part of it was by hosting a “watch party” of the livestream.

“The way it was going to happen was hugely problematic,” Meto Fox said.

Not only was the Town Hall event going to be too limited for her liking, but not taking the apology around the country was a mistake, she said.

At the Polynesian Panther Party’s 50th anniversary symposium over the weekend, many shared how, while the Dawn Raids were primarily an Auckland tragedy, they still reached people as far away as Invercargill.

“This presents an opportunity where they could have it in other places.”