'I cannot see what makes the difference except race’ : representations of Māori health, 1880-1920

Abstract

This thesis is about the dominant racial and scientific ideas that existed in the period 1880-1920 by which Maori were understood and defined as a race. It explores how the ideas were created and circulated, and how they shaped medical opinion, public policy and Maori access to health services. The dominant understandings and ideologies about Maori were a product of both race science and political agendas. Scientists, doctors, politicians and government officials (who were often the same people) wrote about Maori, their health and their future. Poor Maori health and a population which was declining in the 1880s were attributed to racial traits which ranged from degenerate physiques to immoral behaviour. Maori traditions and ways of life were also portrayed as inherently unhealthy and leading to the decline of the race. These understandings put the focus on Maori themselves and took attention away from the effects of colonisation and land loss as the reason for poor Maori health, and explained the decline of the population as the result of natural processes. The ideological nature of these understandings meant that that the beginnings of revival were not always recognised, and there were attempts to explain away census results which contradicted the idea that Maori would become extinct. Other forms of the dying race discourses were assimilation and amalgamation, and these were also used explain that Maori could have no future as a separate race.