Through the Red Lens: Constructed Perceptions of Māori as a Violent Race, 1857-1873

Abstract

In the mid-nineteenth century, Auckland was a growing town where European ideas of race and class dominated, and settlers lived not far removed from a frontier which marked the extent of their control. The frontier marked the limit of colonial achievement, beyond which Māori custom ruled the land. To the south lay Waikato, where Māori resisted the encroachment of colonization, and determinedly protected their land. From Auckland, the Limited Circle, a group of businessmen who were drawn from the upper class of Auckland society, sought to expand colonization through political and military means. They were capitalists who had profited off of colonialism, and sought to profit further by gaining control of Māori land. They were able to achieve this by using their political influence to pass laws advancing war against Māori, and confiscating the land as punishment. Key to their success in this scheme was the use of a “red lens” stereotype which portrayed Māori as violent savages, and as a looming threat to the European settlements. By using social constructions of race to shape discourses in the colony around Māori, the group was able to legitimize violent action against Māori in an atmosphere of tension, and advance their agenda through war. They were able to succeed in this through their control of multiple newspapers in Auckland, which allowed them to shape narratives around Māori to fit their agenda. The construction of this narrative created a context in which a campaign against Māori was justified by using existing tropes of savagery, and the threat they supposedly posed. The outcome was a war against Māori, and in the years following, a continued push to depict Māori who resisted colonisation as a violent ‘Other’ at the frontier of civilisation. In the aftermath of the war, members of the Limited Circle profited through speculation on, and extraction of resources from the confiscated lands. The legacy of this period is embedded in modern Auckland society where businesses founded by the Limited Circle continue to operate, while law firms and streets still bear the names of members of that elite group.