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Story: Rhythms of daily life

Working hard for the money: unpaid work

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Working hard for the money: unpaid work

It is 2.35 p.m. and Masiega So’iso’i is checking the washing she hung out on her return from work in the morning. Next she will collect her younger children from school, make dinner and spend time with her family, then sleep for four or five hours before rising at 2 a.m. to go to work.

Using this item

Alexander Turnbull Library, Dominion Post Collection (PA-Group-00685)

Reference: EP/1989/2831

by Jon Hargest

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.

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How to cite this page

Megan Cook, Rhythms of daily life – Working-age adults, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/photograph/40511/working-hard-for-the-money-unpaid-work (accessed 4 June 2026).

Story by Megan Cook, published 11 December 2012.