Loading Docs 2022 - Testimony

Our government conveys to the future generations of Aotearoa that the past actions of the crown were wrong, and that the treatment of your ancestors was wrong. Today, I stand on the behalf of the New Zealand Government, to offer a formal and unreserved apology to Pacific communities for the discriminatory implementation of the immigration laws of the 1970s, that led to the events of the Dawn Raids.

– Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern apologises to the Pasifika community at Auckland Town Hall, 1 August 2021

My thought, in the Tongan way, if someone wrongs someone else, the wrong-doer should apologise to solve the problem . . . It's 45 years since it happened, and it would have been better if they had apologised to the two who were directly impacted. My parents.

– Tesimoni Fuavao is asked for his thoughts on the government's upcoming apology for the Dawn Raids

In Tonga the police are highly regarded, and the police are well respected. So, when the police arrest someone, even if they're innocent or guilty they are considered guilty . . . my parents presumed themselves guilty. It affected them greatly...

– Tusimoni Fuavao on the shame carried by his parents

I don't think there is any Pacific family who was not touched by the Dawn Raids or the random checking in one way or another. There are Pacific people who find it difficult to stand tall...because of that, to live a full life carrying this burden.

– Reverend Alec Toleafoa on the legacy of the Dawn Raids, Radio New Zealand website, 19 April 2021

It was a horrible, horrible time . . . you had immigration policy and you had discrimination in terms of applying the law. You had government and businesses' complicity in encouraging people to come to New Zealand and turning a blind eye when their permits expired. Then you had a turnaround when jobs became more tight, when there was an economic downturn.

– Joris de Bres, who later became Race Relations Commissioner, Radio New Zealand website, 19 April 2021

My mother has talked about how at the time of the dawn raids there was a chill that came over the Pacific community. No-one would go out in public. They stayed away from the shops. They wouldn’t socialise in public. There were hushed short conversations with passers-by, then straight home. There was real fear in people’s eyes as authorities were empowered to stop anyone who didn’t look whit

– Spinoff contributor Apulu Reece Autagavaia on the Dawn Raids era, 2 August 2021