New Zealand journalist Gaurav spoke in Cambridge last month on the misconceptions around Indian migration. Photo: Viv Posselt
The history of Indian settlement in New Zealand, from its little-known beginnings in 1769 to the present day, was outlined in a talk to the Cambridge U3A.
Senior Radio New Zealand reporter Gaurav Sharma addressed the topic, ‘From margins to mainstream: How Kiwi-Indians helped shape modern New Zealand’.
He spoke to the contrasts between perception and reality around Indian migration, covering off their earlier-than-realised arrival here and their integration into New Zealand communities. Over the years, the Indian community has grown to account for six percent of New Zealand’s population.
“Now the third-largest ethnicity, Indian New Zealanders are among the nation’s most prosperous, earning 20 per cent more than the median income,” he said. “They are woven into the very fabric of our national history. From the first colonial ships in the 1700s and the trenches of Gallipoli, to the Waikato dairy farms and Pukekohe market gardens, their footprint is deep.”
He said over 1000 Indians died fighting with British forces at Gallipoli, yet it took years for the New Zealand government to recognise their contributions.
Many came to the Waikato between 1890 and 1918, initially working to clear scrubland to create arable farmland. They later purchased some of that farmland, and today, more than 100 Indian families are dairy farming in the Waikato, contributing over 20 percent of New Zealand’s milk supply.
Indians also settled in the Pukekohe area where they became successful market gardeners, yet for years faced open discrimination. Those issues still exist, Sharma said, citing markedly inequal representation in corporate leadership and difficulties experienced around the recognition of qualifications held by migrant professionals.
He came to New Zealand from Singapore in 2014, following his scientist wife whom he said was ‘poached’ from her job with the Singapore government for a job with a 20 per cent drop in earnings. Sharma worked in various centres then launched his own publications, The Migrant Times, and Multicultural Times, essentially, he said, to strengthen ethnic representation in New Zealand media.
More recently he has been covering news around the Asian community in Auckland.
Indian migrants have been here for 250 years – a contrast to political rhetoric that suggests they ‘have just come from the airport’, he said.
They first arrived in 1769 when two Indian sailors came here aboard a French ship at the same time Captain Cook was leaving New Zealand. The first recorded Indian to discover gold here, in Otago in 1857, was Edward Peters from Goa. Between 1890 and 1918 Indians from Punjab began arriving, working initially to clear land for farming. They saved hard and bought their own farms.
The first recorded Indian owned dairy farm was in Kihikihi.
Despite the deep history they have here, many Indian families continue to face misunderstanding and cultural clichés. One is that they own ‘corner dairies’ as some sort of lifestyle choice when those were decisions made because jobs were difficult to get.
Another misconception, he said, was that Indians were regarded as ‘one family’.
“There are more than 100 official languages in India and lots of different religions,” he said. “Such diversity means that most people now speak English as a way of connecting with one another.”
