Story: Taupori Māori – Māori population change

Dancing at the community centre

Dancing at the community centre

The Auckland Māori Community Centre in inner-city Freemans Bay opened in 1948 as a pan-tribal Māori social and cultural centre. It provided a place for recently urbanised Māori to meet other new arrivals and receive support in adjusting to urban life. The centre put on a mix of informal and formal events, including dances (shown here in the early 1960s), hui (meetings) and tangi (funerals). It was supplanted in the 1970s by new urban marae, closer to the suburbs in which most Māori in Auckland now lived. 

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Archives New Zealand - Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga
Reference: AAMK W3495/28H
Photograph by Ans Westra

Permission of Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga must be obtained before any re-use of this material.

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How to cite this page:

Ian Pool and Tahu Kukutai, 'Taupori Māori – Māori population change - Post-war changes, 1945–1970', Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, http://www.TeAra.govt.nz/en/photograph/31327/dancing-at-the-community-centre (accessed 19 April 2024)

Story by Ian Pool and Tahu Kukutai, published 5 May 2011, reviewed & revised 27 Sep 2018