Note on the text

This comparison will detail the participation of the indigenous popula-

tions of the ive British Dominions – Canada, Australia, Newfoundland,
New Zealand and South Africa – during the First World War. Any
author investigating aspects of indigenous history must, if by peer
scrutiny alone, delineate approaches to descriptive nouns and chrono-
logical representations. Given the multiplicity of indigenous nations
within the respective Dominions, they did not represent monolithic,
homogenous entities. Many indigenous peoples felt a stronger afi li-
ation to clans than to either their nations or their indigenous collective
(unknown prior to European contact). Moreover, enduring animos-
ities still existed between traditional enemies. Therefore, grouping
them as Aboriginal Australians, for example, is seemingly specious.
Fundamentally, however, based on the dominant policies of Dominion
and imperial governments, this generalization is not only unavoidable,
but is also representative of trans-national themes, and is indicative of
the social and political environments in all Dominions and the United
Kingdom during the years of, and surrounding, the First World War.
Indigenous nations or groupings will be explored when they are
important to the arguments or are imperative to understanding regional
policies and decisions. Given the multitude of indigenous dialects within
ive diverse Dominions, the use of indigenous languages will be kept to
a minimum unless central to explanation. For example, the Maori word
for non-Maori peoples is Pakeha. This word will be used to describe
non-Maori New Zealanders, as it was adopted into New Zealand soci-
ety. In general, however, European terminology will be used, not out of
ignorance or thoughtlessness; rather, to enhance readability and, more
importantly, to adhere to contemporary convention.
As a rule, this work adopts the language present in the contemporary
documents and bureaucratic discourses, although many of the terms
used, such as kafi r or half-caste, are now deemed derogatory and polit-
ically incorrect. The term indigenous represents those peoples present
in the Dominions prior to contact. Indian will be used to describe those
xiii

Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. Nottingham Trent University, on 15 Aug 2019 at 15:37:23, subject to the Cambridge Core
terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139057387.001
 xiv Note on the text

indigenes of North America. The term Eskimo will embody the peoples
of Arctic Canada and Newfoundland-Labrador. Métis will be used to
describe a distinct people of European and Indian lineage. Indigenous
Australians will be referred to as Aborigines, and at times as full-blood
or half-caste, as this differentiation was paramount in Australian pol-
icy and practice. Indigenous South Africans will be referred to as black
(or native) and coloured, as the Union of South Africa afforded dif-
ferent freedoms and management to these groupings. Lastly, the New
Zealand Maori will be identiied as such.1
The use of these labels, which many associate with subjugation, dis-
honour and Eurocentric ideology, is not a concession to their negative
connections; rather, it is an attempt to relate accurately the contem-
porary attitudes, opinions and legal arrangements represented in these
words by the societies, peoples and decrees which used them. To employ
more current words or phrasings, or to surround in quotation marks to
afi rm the lawed construction of a label, is to impart a consciousness
to policy makers and populations that did not exist at the time in which
this history takes place.
Dei ning settlers from the British Isles is also challenging. Many
considered themselves Scottish, Irish, Welsh or English. Conversely,
settlers in the Dominions from the British Isles felt strong connec-
tions to the metropole and shared many of the same cultural and soci-
etal values and increasingly identiied themselves with being British.
Hence, in most instances, the term British will describe settlers from
the British Isles.
Lastly, the term contact represents the i rst encounters between
indigenous peoples and Europeans. This is not to impart that indigen-
ous nations do not have, based on archaeological evidence, oral trad-
itions and scientiic theory, lengthy records of terrestrial occupation
and socio-cultural evolution prior to the arrival of Europeans. Contact
infers that indigenous peoples underwent an unavoidable cataclysmic
crisis, unparalleled in their known previous histories, due to the intro-
duction of disease and the adoption of killing potential through the use
of European weapon systems. By the dawn of the twentieth century,
indigenous populations, save for those of South Africa, were moribund,
due to deadly disease, warfare, and contact with peoples of differing
genetic dispositions and viral immunities.

1
Although the Maori Contingent of the First World War was oficially des-
ignated the ‘Native Contingent’, it is more commonly known as the ‘Maori
Contingent’, and will be referred to as such. The term native was not oficially,
and legally, replaced with Maori until 1947.

Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. Nottingham Trent University, on 15 Aug 2019 at 15:37:23, subject to the Cambridge Core
terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139057387.001
 N o r t h S ea
Zeebrugge

Ostend Bruges
Nieuport Ghent

S
LY
Dunkirk
Brussels
Calais Passchendaele
Ypres Liège
St Omer
Messines E
Hazebrouck US
Ploegsteert ME
Boulogne Lille
Laventie Namur
Neuve Chapelle Charleroi
Etaples Givenchy La Bassée Mons E
BR
Montreuil- Lens M
Loos

SA
sur-Mer Douai
Vimy Valenciennes Maubeuge
Arras
Cambrai
Landrecies
Bapaume La Cateau
Abbeville E OIS
SO
MM Albert Péronne
E
St Quentin Mézières Sedan
Amiens Longwy

La Fère AISNE
Noyon Laon
Montdidier

Compiègne
Soissons V E SL E
Verdun
Rheims

I SE
Épernay
O

Château St Mihiel
Meaux Thierry
SEINE

Paris

0 25 50 75 100 125 km
Alsace-Lorraine
(inactive sector)
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 miles

Black arrows indicate the site and direction of the two great 1916 offensives:
VERDUN (German), bottom right; SOMME (Anglo-French), centre left.
Frontiers of 1914
Limit of German advance, 1914
Approximate line of the Front from late 1914 to the beginning of the
Battle of the Somme, 1 July 1916
Allied gains in 1916–17, including ground conceded by the Germans in early 1917
Limit of German advance, 1918
Armistice line, 11 November 1918

Map 1 The Western Front, 1914–18.

Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. Nottingham Trent University, on 15 Aug 2019 at 15:37:23, subject to the Cambridge Core
terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139057387.001
 Koyukon

Holikachuk Kutchin
Inuit

lik
Kolchan

Ing a Tanaina
Tanana Inuit ARCTIC
Han Hare
Ahtna
Mountain Inuit
Indians Inuit
Yello
Tutchone wkn
ife
Dogrib
Tagish
Inland
Tlingit
Kaska
Inuit
Chipewyan

Tlingit
WESTERN Slave SUBARCTIC
Tahltan
Naskapi
Haida Nisga’a
Gitksan Beaver
Tsimshian
NORTHWEST Coast
Sekani Western Woods Cree
Beothuk
Woods
COAST Tsimshian Carrier Cree
Montagnais
Bella Chilcotin ee Cree
S
Métis Assiniboine Chipewyan Cr Cree
Coola
Kwagiulth Woods Cree py
N D ATLANTIC

am
PL s
LA
Sarcee A I M

Sw
Shuswap é ti s Mi’kmaq

n
Stoney N

oia
Coast Northern Ojibwa
OD

oqu
Salish
K oot

S
Saulteaux Mi’kmaq
O

CR
Interior

ce Ir
T NW
Nuu chah

EE
t
see
enay

Salish N. Ojibwa
NORTHER
O
nulth
NORTHERN ali

ren
Piegan
FO

M
Blood Atsina Assiniboine

Law
Cowichan Métis
CK

S. Ojibwa Algonkin

St.
Piegan
PLAINS Abenaki
LA

Mississauga Nipissing
B

Crow Huron
Ojibwa
Petun
Menominee mi Ottawa

Maohaw ora
M scar ida a
0 250 500 750 1000 km to oi

Tu ne dag
wa

hic k
ta oqu
nro Ir

O on

an
Winnebago Po Sauk

On yuga
We

Ca neca
Se
0 100 200 300 400 500 600 miles Fox
Kickapoo Erie
e
Miami Shawne

Map 2 Indian nations of Canada and Newfoundland.

Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. Nottingham Trent University, on 15 Aug 2019 at 15:37:23, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms.
https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139057387.001
 Te Taitokerau
Te Aupouri
Nagati Kahu Hauraki
Te Rawawa Ngati Whanaunga
Nga Puhi Ngati Tarmatera
Ngati Wiai Ngati Maru
Waikato Ngati Whatua
Ngati Paoa
Ngati Te Ata
Waikato Mataatua
Ngati Mahuta Ngai Te Ranga
Ngati Raukawa Ngati Ranginui
Ngati Toa Ngati Awa
Ngati Maniapoto Tuhoe
Arawa Whakatohea
Te Arawa Ngai Tai
Ngati Tuwharetoa Whanau-A-Apanui
Taranaki Te Tairawhiti
Ngati Tama Ngati Porou
Ngati Mutunga Aitanga-A-Hauiti
Ngati Maru Aitanga-A-Mahaki
Te Atiawa Ngai Tutekohe
Taranaki Ngati Ruapani
Ngati Ruanui Rongowhakaata
Te Upoko O Te Ika Ngati Rauru Ngati Ruapani
Ngati Apa Ngai Tamanuhiri
Ngati Raukawa
Rangitane Kahungunu
Muaupoko Ngati Kahungunu Ki Te Wairoa
Te Atiawa
Ngati Toa Whanganui
Ngai Koata Ngati Hau
Nagati Koata Whanganui
Ngati Raru
Te Atiawa Ngati Kahungunu Ki Heretaunga
Ngati Tama

Ngati Kahungunu Ki Wairarapa

Ngati Koata
Nagati Apa Ngati Kuia
Te Atiawa
Kai Tahu Rangitane
Poutini Kai Tahu
Kai Tahu
Katl Mamoe

Kai Tahu
Kati Mamoe
Waitaha

0 200 400 600 800 km

Kai Tahu
Kati Mamoe
0 100 200 300 400 500 miles

Map 3 Maori Iwi (tribes) of New Zealand.

Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. Nottingham Trent University, on 15 Aug 2019 at 15:37:23, subject to the Cambridge Core
terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139057387.001
 0 100 200 300 400 500 km
Racial concentrations and homelands
Racial concentrations of 30 per cent or more by magisterial district 0 100 200 300 miles
NOTE: Portions of coloured, Indian and white areas may also have an equal
or slightly larger percentage of other racial groups. Black areas have no other
racial groups as high as 30 per cent. Homelands are traditional areas set aside by the
South African government for specific black ethnic groups. All have a black
population in excess of 90 per cent. Bophuthatswana, Transkei and Venda have been VENDA
granted nominal independence by South Africa.

GA
Indians

ZA
E

L
B
O Pietersburg

WK
coloureds W
A

U LU
whites
blacks S. NDEBELE
Mmabatho
black homeland A Pretoria WANE
AN NG

KA
SW Johannesburg
CISKEI homeland name A T
U TH SWAZILAND
Based on 1970 census PH
BO

QWAQWA
Kimberley U

L
ZU
Bloemfontein

A
KW
LESOTHO
Durban

TRANSKEI

Umtata

Beaufort
West
CI S KE I
East London

Cape Town Riversdale Port Elizabeth

Map 4 The 1913 South Africa n Natives Land Act: distribution of

lands and ethnicity.

Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. Nottingham Trent University, on 15 Aug 2019 at 15:37:23, subject to the Cambridge Core
terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139057387.001