Abstract
This thesis explores the connection between Māori urban migration and the Māori home
front war effort during World War Two. It argues that Māori urban migration was
occurring on a meaningful and notable scale before the end of World War Two, and this
can be seen in the impact urban migration had on the war effort. The relationship
between war work and migration is examined through case studies of three different
industries: Market Gardens, Freezing Works, and the Public Service. This framework
was chosen because it allows for the examination of various employment patterns, as
they relate to gender, kin, and different forms of migration.
The historiography for the Māori home front in World War Two has largely been
limited to analyses of the Māori War Effort Organization and its legislative legacy.
Other areas of research usually limit the Māori home front experience to being the
prologue for events in the 1950s and beyond, in terms of urban migration and industrial
developments. The period of Māori urban migration after 1950 has often been described
as a ‘flood’, and the period before that as a ‘drift’. This thesis offers an examination of
the 1939-1945 period which places the war at the forefront of the story of Māori urban
migration, and challenges the assumption that Māori urban migration only becomes
notable after the war. Making use of primary sources ranging from minute books, to
official correspondence, housing surveys, and census data, this thesis offers a new
perspective on the Māori home front. It contributes to the scholarship by exploring the
link between employment, migration, and the war effort.