New Zealand’s Colonial Administration of Sāmoa

These photographs offer a glimpse into New Zealand’s Colonial Administration of Sāmoa from 1914 till 1962.

At the outset of WWI, New Zealand was tasked by Britain with capturing Sāmoa, then under German occupation. New Zealand occupied Sāmoa for 48 years and its military occupation was replaced with a civil administration mandate conferred to New Zealand by the League of Nations in 1920.

Many Sāmoans joined the League of Sāmoa, more commonly known as the Mau, an oppositional movement that practised passive resistance. On 28 December 1929, a Mau protest march ended in violence when eleven Sāmoans and one New Zealand policeman were killed in a tragedy now known as ‘Black Saturday’.

In 2002, New Zealand’s then Prime Minister, Helen Clark, formally apologised to Sāmoa.