Abstract:
The mechanisms of the settler-colonial capitalist project took many forms in early New Zealand in the quest to transform Māori society and economy. One such aspect was the early care and protection system with its unrelenting drive to assimilate and proletarianise tamariki and rangatahi Māori. The whakapapa of the early care and protection system runs through the first meetings of Reverend Samuel Marsden and Ngāpuhi rangatira, continues through the spread of the mission, Native, and Māori church boarding schools, and into the formation of our child welfare institutions. Archival texts, Māori and English language newspapers, school records, legislation, and secondary research were analysed through a synthesised Kaupapa Māori and historical materialist lens to explore this broad topic. In weaving together the apparently disparate threads of the early care and protection system, its function in transforming the relations of production on this whenua becomes clear. This system and its focus on Māori children as a primary site of social and economic change was critical for the implementation of settler-colonial capitalism.