New Zealand’s prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, has issued a formal apology for historic racist policing of Pacific people and offered scholarships to Pacific students. Hundreds of people packed Auckland town hall on Sunday to hear the apology for the “dawn raids” of the 1970s during which authorities hunted for visa overstayers. The practice took place under both of New Zealand’s major political parties, beginning with Labour prime minister Norman Kirk and continuing under the National’s Robert Muldoon. The government will also incorporate the dawn raids into the history curriculum, and support Pacific artists and historians to create an official record of the mistreatment. Sunday’s formal apology follows two others by former prime minister Helen Clark.

Source: The Guardian August 02, 2021 00:13 UTC