item details
Overview
This World War II fund-raising poster shows how Māori 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.
The poster image was taken from an official photograph of a member of the Māori Battalion during tommy gun training at Maadi, Egypt, WWII, between 1940 and 41.
Rare poster
World War II posters in the Māori language are almost unknown. According to Māori Battalion historian Monty Soutar, this is because government messages were usually delivered orally on marae (meeting places).
Translation
'Stop! We appeal to you. The Māori 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.)'
Māori War Effort Organisation
The Māori War Effort Organisation was formed in June 1942 to encourage maximum Māori participation in the war effort, and to do so following Māori custom and tradition. The organisation’s main function was to assist with recruiting, as Māori could not be conscripted. It also expanded into other areas, such as encouraging local food production and assisting in the direction of Māori labour.
Māori war effort
Māori 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 Māori population was either in the armed services or working in essential industries.