Blackface

Canada's leader is in trouble for coming to a fancy dress party as a parody of an Indian. NZ has its own, forgotten history of blackface. At the end of the 1933 academic year, a band of 'n****r minstrels', pictured above, entertained students of Auckland Teachers Training College. Similar entertainment was common at theatres & at parties throughout NZ in the early 20th century. The newspaper article from 1935 reproduced below promises that a team of forty 'n****rs' will provide 'most suitable' entertainment for children who visit Auckland's Regent Theatre.

It was normal for both adults & kids to come to fancy dress balls in racially charged costumes; the white hood of the Ku Klux Klan was another favourite outfit. A kids' fancy dress ball held at Patumahoe in 1920, reported in the article reproduced below, featured a 'Persian lady', a 'Hawaiian lady', an 'Egyptian lady', & two Klansmen. In 1920 the Klan was exploding in numbers across the US; in 1923 it would appear in NZ, & carry out attacks against Asian businesses in Auckland & Christchurch.