Tāmaki Untold: ‘Operation Pot Black’

‘Operation Immigration’, also known colloquially as ‘Operation Pot Black’, began just before Labour weekend 1976, when police launched nationwide state-sanctioned enforcement targeting overstayers. In Auckland, police tactics which included discriminatory random checks and large-scale raids on mainly Polynesian homes and workplaces sparked widespread condemnation and comparisons with Apartheid South Africa. The operation caused lasting harm to Pacific families and community relations.

Join us as researcher and historian Leone Samu Tui shares findings based on the police enquiry following these events, not previously released to the public, to better understand the controversial actions on Labour Weekend, 50 years ago.

Stemming from the New Zealand government’s 2021 formal apology for the Dawn Raids, this research contributes to the government’s commitment to develop historical and educational resources towards the public’s understanding of this dark chapter in New Zealand’s history.

Drawing on state records, public archives (including the Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections), and interviews with community leaders, this talk charts an expanded sequence of events before, during and after the operation, in particular examining Pacific communities’ responses to this crisis point.

About our presenter: Leone Samu Tui

(Hāmoa, Ngati Kahungunu ki Wararapa) Since 2023, Leone has been a researcher at Manatū Taonga, the Ministry for Culture and Heritage in the Dawn Raids and Pacific Histories work programme. Prior to this role, she served as the inaugural Associate Curator for Documentary Heritage (Pacific Collections) at Tāmaki Paenga Hira, Auckland War Memorial Museum. Leone is a current Masters student in the History programme at Victoria University of Wellington examining the formation, relationalities, and legacies of three pan-Pacific organisations in Dawn Raids-era New Zealand.