Uncovering the Mat: Restorative Justice for the Dawn Raids?

This chapter revisits an ifoga ceremony that was conducted in August 2021 in Aotearoa New Zealand, in which the Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern officially apologised for the Dawn Raids of the 1970s. In these raids, the New Zealand Government had systematically scapegoated and targeted Pacific peoples for deportation. The author reflects on some limitations of this recent ifoga ceremony, thereby questioning whether it was, in fact, a genuine ifoga.