page_title: Mau movement
section_title: Civil disobedience
hierarchical_section_title: Mau movement / History / Civil disobedience
caption_attribution_description: English: New Zealand police in Samoa during the Mau movement, circa 1930. Gagana Samoa: Leoleo mai Niu Sila i Samoa i le taimi o le Mau. (O le ata fa'apea na pu'e i le tausaga 1930.)
context_page_description: The Mau was a non-violent movement for Samoan independence from colonial rule during the first half of the 20th century. Mau means ‘resolute’ or ‘resolved’ in the sense of ‘opinion’, ‘unwavering’, ‘to be decided’, or ‘testimony’; also denoting ‘firm strength’ in Samoan. The motto for the Mau were the words Samoa mo Samoa. Similarly in Hawai'ian Mau means to strive or persevere, and is often linked with Hawai'ian poetry relating to independence and sovereignty struggles.
  The movement had its beginnings on the island of Savai'i with the Mau a Pule resistance in the early 1900s with widespread support throughout the country by the late 1920s. As the movement grew, leadership came under the country's chiefly elite, the customary matai leaders entrenched in Samoan tradition and fa'a Samoa. The Mau included women who supported the national organisation through leadership and organisation as well as taking part in marches. Supporters wore a Mau uniform of a navy blue lavalava with a white stripe which was later banned by the colonial administration.
context_section_description: 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, 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.
  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 strong force of marines to quell the largely non-violent resistance. 400 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.
caption: New Zealand police in Samoa during the Mau movement
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