Title / object name  Poster, ’Taringa Whakarongo!’

Maker	Role	Date
N.Z. National Savings Committee	publisher	1941

Materials  paper, printing ink

Dimensions
Overall	738 (Height) x 483 (Width) mm

Classification  posters
Technique  offset lithography
Registration Number  GH015341
Credit Line
Purchased 2006

This World War II fund-raising poster shows how Maori were appealed to in their own language. The National Savings Committee published many posters during the war to encourage saving and fund-raising. It targeted its campaigns to ensure all citizens were informed and persuaded.

Rare poster

World War II posters in the Maori language are almost unknown. According to Maori Battalion historian Monty Soutar, this is because government messages were usually delivered orally on marae (meeting places).

Translation

'Stop! We appeal to you. The Maori Battalion calls to you to help. Food, uniforms, guns – ammunition – and other war weapons. These are needed by our soldiers – that they may prevail and not perish through lack – that the victory may be theirs and ours. Money alone can provide the weapons – without weapons we shall perish. Read the notice about National Savings. Go to the Post Office and lend your money. (Even a shilling week by week will help.)'

Maori War Effort Organisation

The Maori War Effort Organisation was formed in June 1942 to encourage maximum Maori participation in the war effort, and to do so following Maori custom and tradition. The organisation’s main function was to assist with recruiting, as Maori could not be conscripted. It also expanded into other areas, such as encouraging local food production and assisting in the direction of Maori labour.

Maori war effort

Maori were very active on the home front in fund-raising and production. Men and women came to work in the cities in essential industries under the government’s ‘manpowering’ scheme. Many women gathered and prepared seafood and other foods to send overseas. They knitted, sewed, and baked. By 1943, nearly one third of the Maori population was either in the armed services or working in essential industries.