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Why I Wrote the Play I Wrote OSCAR KIGHTLEY on Dawn Raids.
In 1997 I was a few years into my career as a paid writer. It had all been collaborating with other writers, which was awesome. Writing is hard. If you write with other people it somehow seems a bit easier because you can keep each other to task when the energy waivers. I knew though that I’d always try and write a play on my own. It didn’t feel like you could call yourself a playwright, until you’d written plays on your own. When it came to choosing what it would be about, dawn raids was always in my mind. For Pacific Islanders living in Auckland during the 70s, ‘dawn raids’ was a thing. Even though I was only in primary school in the 70s, it was still something I knew about: from the occasional mentions on serious looking bulletins on the news, to the whispered mentions in overheard adults’ conversations. I knew that I wanted to know more about this and have a go at writing a play about it. I spent a few months researching ‘dawn raids.’ I spent ages in a library that held old newspaper clippings - reading up on how this time was reported in the main city newspapers of the day. Then I interviewed people who had lived through them and who had played various
roles in the struggle: the matriarch and social worker, the central city minister, and the Samoan who worked for the police. Then there were the ones who actively protested against them, while trying to create a space for Pacific Islanders to be in this new land that many were now calling home. The stories were – in annoying street lexicon – totes out of it. It was shocking to read of the extent of the blatant racism. And interesting to read of how many sectors of society here caught up in it. For example, I didn’t realise that it wasn’t just Samoans, Fijians and Tongans targeted. Legal citizen Niueans, Tokelauans, Cook Islanders and even Māori were advised to carry their passports with them to make things easier if they were stopped and questioned. After months doing that research, I felt ready to write. I still didn’t have my own computer, but thankfully had a job as a writer for Gibson Group and their acclaimed television shows Skitz and Telly Laughs. So after writing sketches during the day, I worked on the play at night. It’s nice to have written it and the impact on the audience was awesome. Having Dawn Raids in my work feels cool and I’m glad