Mau Movement

The Mau movement was a revolutionary protest for Samoa's independence from colonial rule in the twentieth century. This set looks into events leading up to the Mau movement as well as the people who lead and supported the movement. SCIS no 5424189

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Images
Apia, Samoa, 27 August 1914: New Zealand naval officers landing with the demand for German surrender
Capture of German Samoa, 1914
Apia, Samoa, 27 August 1914, New Zealand naval officers landing with the demand for German surrender, photographed by an unidentified photographer Quantity: 1 b&w original photographic print(s).
Images
Group of men, including Tupua Tamasese Lealofi III, gathered around the office of the Mau
Group of men, including Tupua Tamasese Lealofi III, gathered around the office of the Mau
Shows group of men, including Tupua Tamasese Lealofi III (dressed in white), gathered around the office of the Mau ca 1928 with the slogan Samoa Mo Samoa over the door. Photograph taken by Alfred ...
Audio
Episode 3: Bullets on Black Saturday (Samoa) | Untold Pacific History
Episode 3: Bullets on Black Saturday (Samoa) | Untold Pacific History
This episode examines the fatal consequences of New Zealand’s rule in Samoa, and the key events that led to the rise of Samoa's ‘Mau’ resistance movement.  
Articles
TALES OF TIME - SAMOAN WOMEN AT THE FOREFRONT OF BATTLE
TALES OF TIME - SAMOAN WOMEN AT THE FOREFRONT OF BATTLE
By Michael Field History, in Sāmoa, is mostly about men. Often it is not even about Sāmoan men, but odd mercenary characters from other lands. Sāmoa tourism promoters spend millions idealising Robe...
Images
Women's Mau committee
Women's Mau committee
Group photograph of leaders and committee of the Women's Mau, 1930
Images
Group of Mau supporters
Group of Mau supporters
A group of Mau supporters, photographed outside the premises of Morris Hedstrom Ltd in Samoa
Images
Influenza hits Samoa
Influenza hits Samoa
Approximately 8500 people, more than one-fifth of the population of Western Samoa, died during the influenza pandemic.
Images
Non-Mau Samoans - Malietoa Tanumafili I
Non-Mau Samoans - Malietoa Tanumafili I
Not all Samoans supported the Mau. Even Mau estimates suggest that, at the height of its popularity, at least one in ten Samoans supported the New Zealand administration.
Images
Mau insignia
Mau insignia
Two New Zealand sailors remove the Mau insignia, a white band, from the lavalavas of two Samoan men in 1930. The Mau independence movement had precedents in small-scale protests against German colo...
Images
The women's Mau organisation at the office of the Mau, Vaimoso village.
The women's Mau organisation at the office of the Mau, Vaimoso village.
The women's Mau organisation at the office of the Mau, Vaimoso village. Photographed by Alfred James Tattersall Quantity: 1 b&w original photographic print(s).
Images
Women Mau leaders
Women Mau leaders
The leaders of the women's Mau; Mrs Tuimaliifano, Mrs Tamasese, Mrs Nelson, Mrs Faumuina, c1930
Images
A women's Mau procession at Vaimoso
A women's Mau procession at Vaimoso
Procession of women supporters of the Samoan Mau movement against the New Zealand administration. When the men supporting the Mau movement went into hiding in the forest, the Women's Mau took over...
Images
Reporting Samoa's influenza pandemic
Reporting Samoa's influenza pandemic
Rather than accept responsibility for the influenza pandemic, New Zealand officials praised the efforts of their personnel in the face of adversity
Videos
Untold Pacific History - Episode 3: Samoa / NZ's colonisation of Samoa & the Mau Movement
Untold Pacific History - Episode 3: Samoa / NZ's colonisation of Samoa & the Mau Movement
‘The Mau’ became a revolutionary movement for Samoa’s independence, against New Zealand’s brutal period of colonial administration. In what is possibly one of the most significant stories of New Ze...
Images
Samoan influenza obituaries
Samoan influenza obituaries
In a single week, the prominent businessman and community figure O. F. Nelson lost his mother, one of his two sisters, his only brother, and his daughter-in-law. S.H. Meredith lost seven close rela...
Newspapers
DEATH OF MATAAFA. (Taranaki Daily News 16-2-1912)
DEATH OF MATAAFA. (Taranaki Daily News 16-2-1912)
Articles
Co-collecting : Materialising German-Samoan Colonial Legacies
The Samoan-German legacy is little studied and understood but increasingly gaining attention through (post)colonial debates and (re)negotiations on both sides of the common relationship.
Images
New Zealand forces hoisting the Union Jack at the courthouse, Apia
New Zealand forces hoisting the Union Jack at the courthouse, Apia
New Zealand soldiers at the raising of the Union Jack (British Flag) - two storey wooden building at right, front lawn and large tree visible in front of it, walkway in foreground (and at left). Sp...
Images
Mau parade along Beach Road in Apia, Samoa, on Black Saturday
Mau parade along Beach Road in Apia, Samoa, on Black Saturday
Mau parade moving west along Beach Road on `Black Saturday', 28 December, 1929, Apia, Samoa. Photograph taken by Alfred James Tattersall. Black Saturday (28 December 1929) happened in Samoa when a...
Images
Map of Black Saturday, 28 December 1929, Samoa
Map of Black Saturday, 28 December 1929, Samoa
On 28 December 1929, at least 8 Samoans and one police officer were killed during what has become known as ‘Black Saturday’. The exact details of the clash between the New Zealand administration ...
Images
The banishment of Tupua Tamasese Lealofi III
The banishment of Tupua Tamasese Lealofi III
The Samoan Offenders Ordinance was used against Tupua Tamasese Lealofi III for one of the more trivial offences committed during Richardson's administration.
Images
The lying in state of Tupua Tamasese Lealofi III, Samoa
The lying in state of Tupua Tamasese Lealofi III, Samoa
Tupua Tamasese Lealofi III lying in state, Samoa, 1929. Amongst those around the coffin are, from left to right: Faumuina Fiame Mulinu'u I (seated in foreground), Tamasese's son (above Faumuina, wi...
Images
Robert Logan in Samoa
Robert Logan in Samoa
Colonel Robert Logan in Apia, Samoa, on 30 August 1914, the morning after he assumed responsibility as Administrator.
Images
League of Nations mandates in the Pacific
League of Nations mandates in the Pacific
Map showing the boundaries of League of Nations mandated areas in the Pacific.
Videos
National Ceremony to Mark the 100th Anniversary of the New Zealand Occupation of German Samoa
National Ceremony to Mark the 100th Anniversary of the New Zealand Occupation of German Samoa
National Ceremony to Mark the 100th Anniversary of the New Zealand Occupation of German Samoa, 29 August 2014. The Cenotaph, Auckland Domain. Programme online: http://events.ww100.govt.nz/2014/nati...
Images
The funeral of Tamasese
The funeral of Tamasese
Pall bearers and Mau police carrying the coffin of Tamasese photographed by Alfred James Tattersall Quantity: 1 b&w original photographic print(s).
Videos
Independence day for Samoa, 1962
Independence day for Samoa, 1962
New Zealand's National Film Unit was in Samoa on independence day in 1962 to film the ceremony. In this excerpt, New Zealand Prime Minister Keith Holyoake and his Samoan counterpart Fiame Mata’afa ...
Videos
Pictorial Parade No. 122 (1962)
Pictorial Parade No. 122 (1962)
New Zealand National Film Unit presents Pictorial Parade No. 122 (1962) On 1 June, Samoa's Independence Day is celebrated. Samoa became independent from New Zealand on 1 January 1962, after more th...
Images
[German Samoa Proclamation]
[German Samoa Proclamation]
Royal coat of arms of the United Kingdom. Text in Samoan. Numbered paragraphs. A proclamation announcing the occupation of German Samoa by the New Zealand government. The rules of the occupation fo...
Images
Group photograph of the Samoan Mau in front of their Vaimoso office
Group photograph of the Samoan Mau in front of their Vaimoso office
Men of the Samoan Mau movement including High Chief Tamasese, in front of the octagonal Mau office building, photographed by Alfred James Tattersall Quantity: 1 b&w original photographic print(s).
Websites
WWW
The Mau Movement and the fall of colonial rule in Sāmoa
The Mau movement rose to prominence as colonial rule fell in Sāmoa post World War One.
Websites
WWW
The Lauati rebellion
Read more about one of the two leaders of the Mau a Pule movement, fighting for Sāmoan independence from German rule.
Newspapers
DOINGS OF THE MAU (Evening Post, 26 October 1927)
Articles
New Zealand and the Mau in Samoa: Re-assessing the Causes of a Colonial Protest Movement, by I.C. Campbell, p 92-110
NZ Journal of History > 1999 Volume 33 > No.1 > New Zealand and the Mau in Samoa: Re-assessing the Causes of a Colonial Protest Movement, by I.C. Campbell, p 92-110
Articles
Remembering the women of the Mau movement in Samoa | E-Tangata
Images
‘Ia Samoa Uma’ leaflet
‘Ia Samoa Uma’ leaflet
A rare and valuable artefact of the colonial period in Samoa.
Articles
Mau opposition to New Zealand rule in Samoa, 1927-1933
This item gives details around the peaceful opposition of colonial rule in Samoa between 1927-1933.
Images
Apia, Samoa, 27 August 1914: New Zealand naval officers landing with the demand for German surrender
Capture of German Samoa, 1914
Apia, Samoa, 27 August 1914, New Zealand naval officers landing with the demand for German surrender, photographed by an unidentified photographer Quantity: 1 b&w original photographic print(s).
Images
Group of men, including Tupua Tamasese Lealofi III, gathered around the office of the Mau
Group of men, including Tupua Tamasese Lealofi III, gathered around the office of the Mau
Shows group of men, including Tupua Tamasese Lealofi III (dressed in white), gathered around the office of the Mau ca 1928 with the slogan Samoa Mo Samoa over the door. Photograph taken by Alfred ...
Audio
Episode 3: Bullets on Black Saturday (Samoa) | Untold Pacific History
Episode 3: Bullets on Black Saturday (Samoa) | Untold Pacific History
This episode examines the fatal consequences of New Zealand’s rule in Samoa, and the key events that led to the rise of Samoa's ‘Mau’ resistance movement.  
Articles
TALES OF TIME - SAMOAN WOMEN AT THE FOREFRONT OF BATTLE
TALES OF TIME - SAMOAN WOMEN AT THE FOREFRONT OF BATTLE
By Michael Field History, in Sāmoa, is mostly about men. Often it is not even about Sāmoan men, but odd mercenary characters from other lands. Sāmoa tourism promoters spend millions idealising Robe...
Images
Women's Mau committee
Women's Mau committee
Group photograph of leaders and committee of the Women's Mau, 1930
Images
Group of Mau supporters
Group of Mau supporters
A group of Mau supporters, photographed outside the premises of Morris Hedstrom Ltd in Samoa
Images
Influenza hits Samoa
Influenza hits Samoa
Approximately 8500 people, more than one-fifth of the population of Western Samoa, died during the influenza pandemic.
Images
Non-Mau Samoans - Malietoa Tanumafili I
Non-Mau Samoans - Malietoa Tanumafili I
Not all Samoans supported the Mau. Even Mau estimates suggest that, at the height of its popularity, at least one in ten Samoans supported the New Zealand administration.
Images
Mau insignia
Mau insignia
Two New Zealand sailors remove the Mau insignia, a white band, from the lavalavas of two Samoan men in 1930. The Mau independence movement had precedents in small-scale protests against German colo...
Images
The women's Mau organisation at the office of the Mau, Vaimoso village.
The women's Mau organisation at the office of the Mau, Vaimoso village.
The women's Mau organisation at the office of the Mau, Vaimoso village. Photographed by Alfred James Tattersall Quantity: 1 b&w original photographic print(s).
Images
Women Mau leaders
Women Mau leaders
The leaders of the women's Mau; Mrs Tuimaliifano, Mrs Tamasese, Mrs Nelson, Mrs Faumuina, c1930
Images
A women's Mau procession at Vaimoso
A women's Mau procession at Vaimoso
Procession of women supporters of the Samoan Mau movement against the New Zealand administration. When the men supporting the Mau movement went into hiding in the forest, the Women's Mau took over...
Images
Reporting Samoa's influenza pandemic
Reporting Samoa's influenza pandemic
Rather than accept responsibility for the influenza pandemic, New Zealand officials praised the efforts of their personnel in the face of adversity
Videos
Untold Pacific History - Episode 3: Samoa / NZ's colonisation of Samoa & the Mau Movement
Untold Pacific History - Episode 3: Samoa / NZ's colonisation of Samoa & the Mau Movement
‘The Mau’ became a revolutionary movement for Samoa’s independence, against New Zealand’s brutal period of colonial administration. In what is possibly one of the most significant stories of New Ze...
Images
Samoan influenza obituaries
Samoan influenza obituaries
In a single week, the prominent businessman and community figure O. F. Nelson lost his mother, one of his two sisters, his only brother, and his daughter-in-law. S.H. Meredith lost seven close rela...
Newspapers
DEATH OF MATAAFA. (Taranaki Daily News 16-2-1912)
DEATH OF MATAAFA. (Taranaki Daily News 16-2-1912)
Articles
Co-collecting : Materialising German-Samoan Colonial Legacies
The Samoan-German legacy is little studied and understood but increasingly gaining attention through (post)colonial debates and (re)negotiations on both sides of the common relationship.
Images
New Zealand forces hoisting the Union Jack at the courthouse, Apia
New Zealand forces hoisting the Union Jack at the courthouse, Apia
New Zealand soldiers at the raising of the Union Jack (British Flag) - two storey wooden building at right, front lawn and large tree visible in front of it, walkway in foreground (and at left). Sp...
Images
Mau parade along Beach Road in Apia, Samoa, on Black Saturday
Mau parade along Beach Road in Apia, Samoa, on Black Saturday
Mau parade moving west along Beach Road on `Black Saturday', 28 December, 1929, Apia, Samoa. Photograph taken by Alfred James Tattersall. Black Saturday (28 December 1929) happened in Samoa when a...
Images
Map of Black Saturday, 28 December 1929, Samoa
Map of Black Saturday, 28 December 1929, Samoa
On 28 December 1929, at least 8 Samoans and one police officer were killed during what has become known as ‘Black Saturday’. The exact details of the clash between the New Zealand administration ...
Images
The banishment of Tupua Tamasese Lealofi III
The banishment of Tupua Tamasese Lealofi III
The Samoan Offenders Ordinance was used against Tupua Tamasese Lealofi III for one of the more trivial offences committed during Richardson's administration.
Images
The lying in state of Tupua Tamasese Lealofi III, Samoa
The lying in state of Tupua Tamasese Lealofi III, Samoa
Tupua Tamasese Lealofi III lying in state, Samoa, 1929. Amongst those around the coffin are, from left to right: Faumuina Fiame Mulinu'u I (seated in foreground), Tamasese's son (above Faumuina, wi...
Images
Robert Logan in Samoa
Robert Logan in Samoa
Colonel Robert Logan in Apia, Samoa, on 30 August 1914, the morning after he assumed responsibility as Administrator.
Images
League of Nations mandates in the Pacific
League of Nations mandates in the Pacific
Map showing the boundaries of League of Nations mandated areas in the Pacific.
Videos
National Ceremony to Mark the 100th Anniversary of the New Zealand Occupation of German Samoa
National Ceremony to Mark the 100th Anniversary of the New Zealand Occupation of German Samoa
National Ceremony to Mark the 100th Anniversary of the New Zealand Occupation of German Samoa, 29 August 2014. The Cenotaph, Auckland Domain. Programme online: http://events.ww100.govt.nz/2014/nati...
Images
The funeral of Tamasese
The funeral of Tamasese
Pall bearers and Mau police carrying the coffin of Tamasese photographed by Alfred James Tattersall Quantity: 1 b&w original photographic print(s).
Videos
Independence day for Samoa, 1962
Independence day for Samoa, 1962
New Zealand's National Film Unit was in Samoa on independence day in 1962 to film the ceremony. In this excerpt, New Zealand Prime Minister Keith Holyoake and his Samoan counterpart Fiame Mata’afa ...
Videos
Pictorial Parade No. 122 (1962)
Pictorial Parade No. 122 (1962)
New Zealand National Film Unit presents Pictorial Parade No. 122 (1962) On 1 June, Samoa's Independence Day is celebrated. Samoa became independent from New Zealand on 1 January 1962, after more th...
Images
[German Samoa Proclamation]
[German Samoa Proclamation]
Royal coat of arms of the United Kingdom. Text in Samoan. Numbered paragraphs. A proclamation announcing the occupation of German Samoa by the New Zealand government. The rules of the occupation fo...
Images
Group photograph of the Samoan Mau in front of their Vaimoso office
Group photograph of the Samoan Mau in front of their Vaimoso office
Men of the Samoan Mau movement including High Chief Tamasese, in front of the octagonal Mau office building, photographed by Alfred James Tattersall Quantity: 1 b&w original photographic print(s).
Websites
WWW
The Mau Movement and the fall of colonial rule in Sāmoa
The Mau movement rose to prominence as colonial rule fell in Sāmoa post World War One.
Websites
WWW
The Lauati rebellion
Read more about one of the two leaders of the Mau a Pule movement, fighting for Sāmoan independence from German rule.
Newspapers
DOINGS OF THE MAU (Evening Post, 26 October 1927)
Articles
New Zealand and the Mau in Samoa: Re-assessing the Causes of a Colonial Protest Movement, by I.C. Campbell, p 92-110
NZ Journal of History > 1999 Volume 33 > No.1 > New Zealand and the Mau in Samoa: Re-assessing the Causes of a Colonial Protest Movement, by I.C. Campbell, p 92-110
Articles
Remembering the women of the Mau movement in Samoa | E-Tangata
Images
‘Ia Samoa Uma’ leaflet
‘Ia Samoa Uma’ leaflet
A rare and valuable artefact of the colonial period in Samoa.
Articles
Mau opposition to New Zealand rule in Samoa, 1927-1933
This item gives details around the peaceful opposition of colonial rule in Samoa between 1927-1933.

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The Mau movement was a revolutionary protest for Samoa's independence from colonial rule in the twentieth century....

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The Mau movement rose to prominence as colonial rule fell in Sāmoa post World War One.

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Mau parade moving west along Beach Road, Apia, Samoa

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Group of Mau supporters
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A group of Mau supporters, photographed outside the premises of Morris Hedstrom Ltd in Samoa

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