Story: Ngā uniana – Māori and the union movement

Māori women workers

Māori women workers

Women hunch over their sewing machines at dressmaking factory California Products in Rotorua, in 1949. Three-quarters of the company’s employees were Māori at the time. By 1966 Māori women were 38% of New Zealand’s production workers (mainly clothing and textile workers) and were well represented in the relevant unions.

Using this item

Alexander Turnbull Library, National Publicity Studios Collection
Reference: 1/2-033749-F
Photograph by Edward Percival Christensen

Permission of the Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand, Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa, must be obtained before any re-use of this image.

All images & media in this story

How to cite this page:

Cybèle Locke, 'Ngā uniana – Māori and the union movement - Māori women and unions', Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, http://www.TeAra.govt.nz/en/photograph/22949/maori-women-workers (accessed 19 April 2024)

Story by Cybèle Locke, published 11 Mar 2010