Washday at the Pa (1964): History of a Controversy

New Zealand is a liberal democracy where state censorship is among the lightest in the world. However, in 1964, the government intervened in the controversy surrounding the publication of a primary schools bulletin called Washday at the Pa. This booklet which showed photographs of the home life of a rural Maori family, engendered strongly differing social views on the representation of Maori, the desirability or otherwise of censoring classroom resources, and the shifting dynamics of race relations in the country. This article scrutinizes the events of 1964 surrounding Washday at the Pa in detail to provide an account of the complex series of actions undertaken by government departments, government ministers, publishers, pressure groups, and commentators on both sides of the debate. It also extends its coverage to subsequent events such as the 2011 re-publication of the bulletin for a twenty-first-century readership. This article argues that the censorship of Washday at the Pa has had long-lasting ramifications and illustrates the evolution of attitudes to the representation of Maori over the decades.