Editing Mau movement (section)

==History==
[[File:Raising the German flag at Mulinu'u, Samoa 1900 photo AJ Tattersall.jpg|thumb|right|150px|Raising the flag of [[German Samoa]] at [[Mulinuʻu]], 1900. (photo by [[Alfred James Tattersall]]).]]

Broadly, the history of the Mau movement can be seen as beginning in the 19th century with European contact and the advent of Western powers, [[United Kingdom|Britain]], [[United States]] and [[German Empire|Germany]], vying for control of the Pacific nation. The country became [[German Samoa]] (1900–1914).

===Formation of ''Mau a Pule''===
A key event occurred in 1908, in a dispute between the [[Germany|German]] colonial administration and the ''Malo o Samoa'', or Samoan Council of Chiefs, over the establishment of a [[copra]] business owned and controlled by native Samoans.

[[File:Lauaki Namulauulu Mamoe.jpg|thumb|left|150px|Exile [[Lauaki Namulauulu Mamoe|Lauaki Namulau'ulu Mamoe]] (photo by [[Thomas Andrew (photographer)|Thomas Andrew]]).]]
The dispute led to the eventual formation of a resistance movement called ''Mau a Pule'' on Savai'i by [[Lauaki Namulauulu Mamoe|Lauaki Namulau'ulu Mamoe]], one of the Samoan leaders from [[Safotulafai]] who was deposed by the German Governor of Samoa, [[Wilhelm Solf]].<ref name="PIM34-2">{{cite web| work= IV(7) Pacific Islands Monthly |title= Germany and the Samoan Mau – How Shrewd Dr. Solf Avoided Samoan Rising in 1908|date = 20 February 1934|url= https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-310947889/view?partId=nla.obj-310959180#page/n19/mode/1up| accessdate=27 September 2021}}</ref> As well as deposing members of the ''Malo o Samoa'', Solf called in two German warships as a show of strength. Lauaki returned with his warriors from Savai'i for battle. The German governor convinced Mata'afa to set up a "peace talk meeting" with Lauaki but that Lauaki had to disperse his army before the meeting. Unknown to Mata'afa was the intent of the German governor to rid of Lauaki. Lauaki, a man of honor, returned with his warriors to Savai'i as they were reluctant to leave Upolu without him. After ensuring his warriors' arrival to their villages, Lauaki returned to Upolu. As it took Lauaki several days to disperse his army, the German governor set up his trap.

Upon their return to Upolu, Lauaki and some of the Chiefs were betrayed at this "peace talk", held aboard the German ship. In 1909, Lauaki and the other senior leaders of the ''Mau a Pule'' were exiled to the German colonies in the [[Marianas]] (North West Pacific) where they were to stay until 1914, when New Zealand took over Samoa as part of its Empire duties at the outbreak of World War&nbsp;I. Many of those exiled died before returning to Samoa. Lauaki died en route back to Samoa in 1915.

In 1914, at the beginning of [[World War I]], [[New Zealand]] forces, unopposed by the Germans, annexed Western [[Samoa]].

===Influenza epidemic===
[[File:Talune.jpg|thumb|right|200px|SS ''Talune'' in Port Chalmers graving dock in New Zealand c.&nbsp;1890s]]
Military rule by New Zealand continued after the war ended, and in 1919, some 7,500&nbsp;Samoans, around 22&nbsp;per cent of the population, died during an [[influenza]] epidemic. It was already known that Samoans were most susceptible to minor European diseases, as they had never encountered them before. When the ship ''[[SS Talune]]'' arrived in Apia with its crew and passengers obviously sick with influenza, they were allowed to dock by the New Zealanders.

Two days later the first deaths were reported. No attempt was made by the New Zealand administrators to quell or contain the spread, and after one week it had spread through the whole of Samoa. Whole families were killed, with such alarming speed that corpses lay around for weeks without being buried. They were either thrown in mass graves or left in houses which were torched. However, in American Samoa, where quarantine precaution measures had been adequately taken, there were no deaths. Upon learning of the situation in Western Samoa, the American Governor offered help to Colonel [[Robert Logan (politician)|Robert Logan]] who was in charge; Logan was a [[Scottish people|Scotsman]] who [[Anti-Americanism|hated Americans]]. He destroyed the telegram and cut off any other contact to American Samoa. The Americans had a large medical team who could have saved many lives.

This catastrophic event was to lay a new foundation for discontent with an administration already perceived as incompetent and dishonest by many Samoans. The clumsy handling of Samoa's governance, the slow and deliberate erosion of traditional Samoan social structures by successive administrators, and a general failure to understand and respect Samoan culture also sowed the seeds for a revitalised resistance to colonial rule. Logan was replaced by Colonel Robert Tate.

===Mau leadership===
The groundswell of support among Samoans for the Mau came from the leadership of Samoan ''[[Fa'amatai|matai]]'', the heads of families in Samoa's traditional socio-political structure. Family and chiefly title connections, a central part of Samoan culture, were used to harness support. The success of the Mau in gathering national support showed that ''fa'a Samoa'' was still strong<ref name=aw/> despite [[colonialism]].

An example of this is found in the many stories of the Mau, in its early days as the fledgling movement began seeking support from matai. One of the urgent matters the early leadership faced was on the question of Savaii, as ''Pule'' (the senior orators and polity heads of Savaii) were yet to pledge their unanimous support. The position of its traditional rulers needed attention if the movement was to gain national appeal. The sensitive cultural maneuvering required for such an undertaking required more than the methods employed by those in Apia and so it was decided that ''Tumua'' (the senior orators and polity heads of Upolu) would travel to Savaii and ask for their support for the fledgling movement. The fleet of ''fautasi'' (canoes) embarked with Upolu's orators on board, led by the ''matua'' of [[Falefa]], Luafalemana Moeono Taele, who after resigning his post in the administration's police force, joined the Mau. Choosing to arrive at Satupa'itea instead of the traditional Sale'aula, Moeono met with Asiata and in asking for his support, recalled Falefa's earlier support for the ''Mau a Pule''<ref>{{Cite book|last=Meleisea, Malama. Meleisea, Penelope Schoeffel.|url=http://worldcat.org/oclc/59616555|title=Lagaga : a short history of Western Samoa|date=1994 |publisher=University of the South Pacific|isbn=982-02-0029-6|oclc=59616555}}</ref> (a precursor to the Mau Movement led Savaii's orators during the German administration). By recalling this, Asiata was compelled to assist and joined ''Tumua'' as they went on to Sale'aula. There, Moe'ono, Asiata and ''Tumua'' met with the assembled ''Pule'' and called on them to reciprocate their earlier solidarity by joining forces with ''Tumua'' in order to further strengthen the cause for independence.<ref>Journal Entry, 17 March 1925.</ref>

Samoans of mixed parentage, facing discrimination from both cultures but with the advantage of cross-cultural knowledge, also played a key role in the new movement.

[[Olaf Frederick Nelson]], one of the leaders of the new Mau movement, was a successful merchant of mixed [[Sweden|Swedish]] and Samoan heritage. Nelson was the richest man in Samoa at the time and well-travelled. He was frustrated by the colonial administration's exclusion of native and part-Samoans from governance. Notably, he was one of many who had lost a child to the influenza epidemic of 1919 in addition to his mother, sister, only brother, and sister in-law. Although classified as a European, he considered himself Samoan "by birth, blood, and sentiment."

In 1926, Nelson visited [[Wellington]] to lobby the New Zealand government on the issue of increased self-rule. During his visit, the Minister for External Affairs, [[William Nosworthy]], promised to visit Samoa to investigate. When Nosworthy postponed his trip, Nelson organised two public meetings in Apia, which were attended by hundreds, and The Samoan League, or ''O le Mau'', was formed.

The Mau published the ''Samoa Guardian'' newspaper as a mouthpiece for the movement.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://heritageetal.blogspot.co.nz/2015/05/samoa-guardian.html |publisher=Heritage et al. |title=Samoa Guardian}}</ref> To demonstrate the extent of popular support for the Mau, Nelson organised a sports meeting for movement members on the King's Birthday, in parallel with the official event, and held a well-attended ball at his home on the same night.

Movement members had begun to engage in acts of noncooperation: Neglecting the compulsory weekly search for the [[rhinoceros beetle]], enemy of the [[coconut]] palm, thereby threatening the lucrative copra industry. When New Zealand administrators imposed a per-capita beetle quota, many Samoan villages resisted by breeding the insects in tightly woven baskets rather than comply with the orders to scour the forests and collect them.

In 1927, alarmed at the growing strength of the Mau, [[George Spafford Richardson|George Richardson]], the administrator of Samoa, changed the law to allow the deportation of Europeans or part-Europeans charged with fomenting unrest. This action was presumably taken on the assumption that the growing movement was merely a product of self-interested Europeans agitating the native Samoans.

[[File:NZ sailors removing white band, insignia of the Mau, from lavalava 1930.jpg|thumb|right|200px|New Zealand sailors removing the white strip from [[lava-lava]], the Mau uniform, circa 1930]]
In reality, however, the Mau was built upon the traditional forms of Samoan political organisation. In each village that joined the movement, a committee was formed, consisting of the chiefs and "talking men". These committees formed the basic element of an alternative system of governance, and the tendency of Samoans to unite under traditional leadership meant that by the mid- to late 1920s, around 85% of the Samoan population was involved in open resistance.

Following another visit to New Zealand to petition the Government, Nelson was exiled from Samoa along with two other part-European Mau leaders, [[Alfred Smyth (Samoan politician)|Alfred Smyth]] and Edwin Gurr.<ref name="PIM31">{{cite web| work= II(10) Pacific Islands Monthly |title= Western Samoa – A Continuing Disappointment |date = 19 May 1932|url= https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-310873141/view?partId=nla.obj-310889001#page/n5/mode/1up| accessdate=26 September 2021}}</ref><ref name="PIM1933-3">{{cite web| work= IV(1) Pacific Islands Monthly |title= Romantic History of E. W. Gurr – a Man who Fought for Samoa Freedom|date = 22 August 1933|url= https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-310912829/view?partId=nla.obj-310919493#page/n28/mode/1up| accessdate=27 September 2021}}</ref> The petition, which led to the formation of a joint select committee to investigate the situation in Samoa, quoted an ancient Samoan proverb: "We are moved by love, but never driven by intimidation."

===Civil disobedience===
The Mau remained true to this sentiment, and despite the exile of Nelson, continued to use [[civil disobedience]] to oppose the New Zealand administration. They boycotted imported products, [[Tax resistance|refused to pay taxes]] and formed their own "police force", picketing stores in Apia to prevent the payment of customs to the authorities. Village committees established by the administration ceased to meet and government officials were ignored when they went on tour. Births and deaths went unregistered. Coconuts went unharvested, and the banana plantations were neglected.

[[File:Mau prisoners and sailors in Apia 1930.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Mau prisoners being transported in the capital [[Apia]]]]
As the select committee was forced to admit, "a very substantial proportion of Samoans had joined the Mau, a number quite sufficient, if they determined to resist and thwart the activities of the Administration, to paralyse the functions of government."

Richardson sent a warship and a 70&nbsp;strong force of marines to quell the largely non-violent resistance. 400&nbsp;Mau members were arrested, but others responded by giving themselves up in such numbers that there were insufficient jail cells to detain them all, and the prisoners came and went as they pleased. One group of prisoners found themselves in a three-sided "cell" which faced the ocean, and were able to swim away to tend to their gardens and visit their families.

With his attempt at repression turning to ridicule, Richardson offered pardons to all those arrested; however, those arrested demanded to be dealt with by the court, and then refused to enter pleas to demonstrate their rejection of the court's jurisdiction.

[[File:NZ police in Samoa during Mau uprising ca 1930 - AJ Tattersall.jpg|thumb|right|200px|New Zealand police in Samoa during the Mau movement (photo by [[Alfred James Tattersall]])]]