Māori Land March 1975

Where can I find information about the Māori Land March in 1975?

(Years 7-10)

Colour photo from 1975 of around 5,000 Māori Land March supporters crossing Auckland Harbour Bridge. — Image: Māori Land Marchers crossing Auckland Harbour Bridge by Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga on DigitalNZ.

Entry last updated: 17/09/24

Introduction

On 13 September 1975, around 5000 people marched from Te Hāpua in the North Island down to Wellington. This Māori land march or hīkoi (march) led by Ngāpuhi leader Dame Whina Cooper was to protest against the loss of Māori land. On arriving in Wellington on 13 October, they presented a petition signed by 60,000 people to the Prime Minister Bill Rowling.

General websites

These New Zealand websites are the best way to look for information about significant events such as the 1975 Māori Land March. Here you can find out what happened, why it happened and who led it.

Te Ara: The Encyclopedia of New Zealand

Te Ara is an excellent starting point for all questions about New Zealand Aotearoa. If we scroll down to the bottom of the page we can see that the website belongs to the Ministry for Culture & Heritage, so the information is well-researched and reliable.

Start by typing the keywords 'Māori land march' into the search bar at the top of the page.
Check out Te tango whenua – Māori land alienation for the history of land confiscation that led to this land march.
The link Land protests has information on the 1975 hīkoi and other historic land protests.

Te Ara also has a section called Dictionary of New Zealand Biographies that has life stories of famous people of New Zealand.

Have a look at the biography of Whina Cooper, the leader of the march.

Tips: Search words, or keywords, are the most important words in our question. Usually it’s better to leave out small words like ‘the’, ‘a’ and ‘of’ and just choose the main ones, eg Māori land march. We can always change our keywords or add more if we need to.

NZHistory

NZHistory is a great website for information about New Zealand Aotearoa. This site also belongs to the Ministry for Culture & Heritage.

Use the search bar to enter the keywords '1975 Land March'.
Look for the result 1975 Whina Cooper leads land march to Parliament for information about the event.
The links at the bottom of the page lead to context about how the land march fits into New Zealand History.
There is also a link to Whina Cooper's biography here in English and in te reo Māori.

Tips: We like sites that are from government or other reputable organisations, because we can trust the information. You can sometimes tell these sites by their web address – they might have .govt or .edu in their address – or by looking at their About us or Contact pages.

DigitalNZ

DigitalNZ is a search site that focuses on New Zealand history and brings together results from lots of different websites such as New Zealand libraries, museums, universities, government sites, media, and more.

Try the keywords '1975 land march' or 'Whina Cooper' and explore the images, videos, audio and newspaper articles.
There are some great primary resources, such as images of the Māori Land March (1975) - Itinerary, Route of March, Petition of Support and a booklet called Why We March.

Tips: Websites that have .org or .net in the address can have good information, but you need to assess how reliable it is. Check the About us link on the website, if you can find one. That can tell you what the organisation’s mission and values are.

NZ On Screen

NZ On Screen is an online showcase of New Zealand television, film and music videos on news, current affairs, history, sport and various other categories.

Use the search words '1975 Land March'.
Check out the documentary Te Matakite o Aotearoa - The Māori Land March, which includes interviews with many who joined the marched like Eva Rickard, Tama Poata and Whina Cooper.

Tips: Websites that have .com or .co in the address can have good information, but you need to assess how reliable it is. Check the About us link on the website, if you can find one. That can tell you what the company’s mission and values are.

Radio New Zealand (RNZ)

RNZ is New Zealand's public radio broadcasting organisation with a programme mix of news, views, current affairs, documentaries, features, drama and music.

Enter the search words '1975 Māori Land March'.
Useful results include John Miller: Māori Land March an interview with the photographer who covered the march, the article 'Not one more acre', and Māori Land March - Whina Cooper, an interview with Whina Cooper.

New Zealand Electronic Text Collection (NZETC)

NZETC is a digitised collection of New Zealand and Pacific Island texts and materials held by Victoria University of Wellington Library.

The book Maori and the State, Crown-Māori Relation in New Zealand Aotearoa, 1950-2000 has a whole chapter called The Māori Land March.

Tips: We like sites like this because they’re reliable. You can tell because of their web address – they have either .govt or .ac, meaning they are from government or educational organisations. They’re also New Zealand sites, so relevant for us.