The New Zealand Government's Niupepa and Their Demise
New Zealand Journal of History, 50, 2 (2016) The New Zealand Government’s Niupepa and their Demise THE NEW ZEALAND GOVERNMENT published the last issue of its final niupepa (Māori-language newspaper), Te Waka Maori o Niu Tirani, on 18 September 1877. Te Waka Maori bookended 35 years of government niupepa production: its first newspaper,Te Karere o Nui Tireni, appeared on 1 January 1842, less than two years after the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi. However, this was not the first time the government quietly withdrew from niupepa production: its first newspaper expired in a shakeup of native affairs in 1846; and its second sequence ended in 1863 at the height of the Waikato War. The fall of Te Waka Maori was decisive, and it was not until the 1950s, with Te Ao Hou, that an official periodical was published to entertain and inform Māori readers. This article is the first to survey the trajectory of official involvement in newspaper production through its three phases. It also seeks to answer why, on three occasions (1846, 1863 and 1877), the government withdrew from niupepa production, arguing that immediate political concerns were pertinent to the government’s decision-making – a change of policy, war and a major libel case respectively. The article also posits that changes within Māori society, such as the advent of the Native Land Court and village-based Native Schools, made niupepa less essential to the government’s plans. The Niupepa Māori Corpus and Research The niupepa corpus offers considerable scope for ongoing historical enquiry. With about 30 publications1 disseminated by government, as well as by religious and Māori political groups or individuals, from the 1840s to the 1960s, niupepa offer invaluable insights on the development of a Māori- language print culture, as well as a wide range of content on Māori society of the time, revealing Māori intellectual frameworks, political networks and changing cultural landscapes.
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