The Dawn Raids started in the 1970’s and ended in the early 1980’s. The police, pakeha and the pacific islanders were involved in this event. So what really happened? Well, when the white people had taken all the rich occupations - eg. doctors, nurses, lawyers and others. They needed some people to do the other jobs - eg. roadworks, janitors and factory work. So they decided to get the islanders to come and do it for them but they only had about 3 months and then they would be sent back to their home country. Some of them would hide and stay. When the police found out they would go searching for them and at the time of dawn they would break into their house and raid their property.
The pakeha were like this because they didn’t like seeing different coloured skins around them, especially on their land. Now that the dawn raids are all over, I think the white people that judged the pacific islanders would be looking back at the time of dawn raids and feeling embarrassed about the mistakes they have made and all the judging they had done about pacific people.
It was an awful time back then and I am glad it isn’t like that nowadays. Below is an image of my artwork and piece of writing about the Dawn Raids.
