Interview with Paul Potiki

Paul Potiki was born in Seatoun, Wellington in 1918. Talks about how Kingi Tahiwi, Ngati Poneke's choir conductor, held the club together. Recalls Tahiwi was born in 1883 in Otaki, worked at Maori Affairs Department as translator, and mentions his involvement in rugby, Maori Advisory Board, Masonic Lodge and St Paul's Cathedral. Mentions Tahiwi's strict dress code for club members. Recalls his own work for the Department of Maori Affairs, his career and his attitude to being Maori. Talks about Ngati Poneke Club nights, the club's structure, origins and social values. Talks about why some Maori wouldn't attend. Mentions his mother was soloist at concerts. Describes the club's regular performances during World War II for American and New Zealand servicemen, the American hospital at Silverstream, Trentham Camp, Fort Dorset, and for hospital ships returning from war.

Mentions the club's table tennis and hockey club. Mentions other contemporary Maori groups, including the Welfare Club that visited Tuberculosis (TB) sufferers at Wellington Hospital. Talks about Maori urban migration to Wellington, and work during the war in government departments, canning factories, woollen mills, hosieries, car factories. Recalls reputation of Maori as good workers. Describes running opera tours in Rome after the war. Mentions the 1940 Centennial celebrations, and the fate of the meeting house constructed for the centenary. Recalls Ngati Poneke's use of the American Army recreational facility after the war, and taken from Maori for Public Works received no compensation. Also recalls arranging rental houses for Maori after the war.

Interviewer(s) - Patricia Grace and Jonathan Dennis

Arrangement: Tape numbers - OHC-10537

Quantity: 1 C90 cassette(s). 1 C60 cassette(s). 1 transcript(s). 2.30 Hours and minutes Duration.

Finding Aids: Abstract Available - transcript(s) available OHA-3655, MSDL-0153 (files Potiki.doc, Potiki2.doc).

Original recordings not available for playback. Surrogate copies will be provided.

Alternative form available: Listening copies OHLC-005565 - OHLC-005566