DO MAORI WOMEN IN AUCKLAND ORGANIZE?

Te Ao Hou, June 1959, Page 77

DO MAORI WOMEN IN AUCKLAND ORGANIZE? Right through the Maori world, women are the inveterate organizers. In Auckland, there is less large-scale organizing done than in the country, because there is less tribal life. Nonetheless, there is the constant flow of visitors from the country who have to be housed while they are on their temporary or not so temporary visits and life of course is generally at least as busy as in the country. Quite a few Maori women take part in the social and sports clubs organized by the ‘rangatahi’ groups and by the churches. There are also some women, at present about seventy, who are members of the Maori Women's Welfare League. This group, at one time a good deal larger, has done some remarkable social work, starting with the famous housing survey seven years ago. A good deal of the work in the Maori community centre has always fallen on League members. Then there has been work in arts and crafts, hospital visiting, help for the distressed, and education in various forms. Members have taken an interest in girls whose troubles had become known to welfare officers. There are now two District Councils active in the city, the Nga Iwi Council whose president is Mrs Bella Taua and the revived Waitemata Council which now has branches in Owairaka, Avondale and Te Aroha. Conference delegates of this council were Mrs Reihana and MacDonald. It is clear that the need for Maori women's groups to do social and recreational work is immense and that we are only just witnessing the beginnings. One tribal committee secretary in the Auckland area (Mr B. A. Batt, Ahuriri) has just written to this journal pressing for more welfare work among teenage girls, especially in dockyard areas. This correspondent says that if children are sent to Port cities to work, their parents should make sure they are properly supervised. Where the parents cannot do so, the burden must fall on some one else. The very small group of professional social workers in Auckland only hear of cases when they have reached a lamentable stage. Further development of the voluntary services, both church and secular, is therefore imperative. E. S.