Brief history of disability in Aotearoa New Zealand
This page, written by Martin Sullivan and Hilary Stace, takes a brief look at the history of disability in Aotearoa, since the advent of European settlement.
Introduction
There have been significant changes in the experience of, and attitudes to, disability in the two centuries since the early days of European settlement in Aotearoa New Zealand.
But policies and services today still reflect a legacy of tensions between the European Pākehā colonisers and indigenous Māori.
Very generally, Pākehā tended to see disability as an individual flaw requiring containment or intervention, while for Māori it was part of human and whānau diversity.
In New Zealand we had a long and toxic mix of colonisation, racism and eugenics in which many poor, Māori or disabled people had no chance of equal citizenship.
We now have a Royal Commission on historic abuse in state care external to examine some of the long term effects, and remaining inequities in many areas.
There is no definitive version of Pākehā disability history and it is often invisible in the historical narrative.
But there is evidence that disability was often viewed negatively by the majority. It has been a long journey from colonial settlement to disability rights.