Te Hau Kainga: The Maori Home Front during the Second World War

The illustrated account of how Māori society was transformed at home while the Māori Battalion were fighting overseas.

Taking readers to the farms and factories, the marae and churches where Maori lived, worked and raised their families, Te Hau Kainga tells the story of the profound transformation in Maori life during the Second World War.

While the Māori Battalion fought overseas, the Māori War Effort Organisation and its tribal committees engaged Māori men and women throughout Aotearoa in the home guard, the women’s auxiliary forces, and national agricultural and industrial production. Māori mobilisation was an exercise of rangatiratanga and it changed how Maori engaged with the state. And, as Māori men and women took up new roles, the war was to become a watershed event for Māori society that set the stage for post-war urbanisationFrom ammunition factories to kumara fields, from Te Puea Herangi to Te Paipera Tapu, Te Hau Kainga provides the first substantial account of how hapori Māori  were shaped by the wartime experience at home. It is a story of sacrifice and remarkable resilience among whanau, hapu and iwi Māori.