Auckland: Indian Pioneers Centenary and Navy Chief's Maori Welcome
Auckland's Indian community gathered this week to mark a historic centenary, celebrating a hundred years since the New Zealand Indian Central Association was founded to protect migrant rights against mounting racism. Onstage and on the water, the city showcased the breadth of its ties with India: a theatrical tribute to the country's earliest Indian settlers ran alongside an official naval visit that built on the India-New Zealand Strategic Partnership signed in July.
🪔 Honoring New Zealand's Invisible Indian Pioneers
The Indian Association Manukau brought Auckland's Indian heritage to the stage with 'Early Indian Voices of Aotearoa,' a two-hour theatrical production marking the centenary of the New Zealand Indian Central Association. The association was founded in 1926 to counter increasing racism directed at Indian migrants, and the production drew from historian Jacqueline Leckie's 2007 book Indian Settlers: The Story of a New Zealand South Asian Community, later expanded in her 2021 work Invisible: New Zealand's History of Excluding Kiwi Indians. Divided into several acts, the show brought to life the stories of brothers Bir and Phuman Singh Gill, Punjabi settlers whom historians believe arrived in New Zealand around 1890, and Keshaw Daji, considered arguably the first Gujarati to relocate here in 1902. Leckie's research also included Wellington's Indian Story: Beyond a Century Four Years Later. The production illustrated how migrants who were once rendered invisible gradually became a vital and celebrated part of New Zealand's national identity. The centenary recognizes not only a hundred years of organized Indian community representation in Aotearoa but acknowledges roots stretching more than 130 years into the country's past, honoring the resilience and adaptation of generations who shaped the nation alongside its original people. [3]
🗳️ Indian Navy Chief Receives Traditional Maori Welcome in Auckland
Indian Navy Chief Admiral Krishna Swaminathan was accorded a traditional Maori Powhiri welcome at Te Taua Moana Marae, the spiritual and cultural home of Royal New Zealand Navy personnel, at the HMNZS Philomel naval base in Devonport, Auckland. The ceremony, a powerful expression of manaakitanga—meaning respect and welcome—is deeply woven into the identity of the New Zealand Navy. The Indian Navy wrote on X that the welcome was 'a powerful expression of manaakitanga, respect and welcome' and 'a uniquely New Zealand beginning to a visit anchored in enduring bonds, mutual respect and shared maritime traditions.' During his official visit, Admiral Swaminathan also met Indian High Commissioner to New Zealand Muanpuii Saiawi and Consul General Madan Mohan Sethi. The Indian High Commission noted the visit 'comes at a time when India and New Zealand have seen elevation of the bilateral relationship and strengthening of maritime cooperation.' Admiral Swaminathan arrived in Auckland following successful engagements in Australia, and his visit builds upon renewed momentum in India-New Zealand relations following Prime Minister Narendra Modi's July visit, when both nations elevated their bilateral relationship to a Strategic Partnership and agreed to deepen cooperation across defence and maritime areas. [4]
Sources: [3] RNZ · [4] Defence.in