A new documentary traces the remarkable century-long journey of the Indian diaspora in Aotearoa New Zealand — from the hardship of the early pioneers to a thriving, influential community of more than 400,000.
Watch the documentary: This Is Our Story (YouTube)
When the first Indians arrived in New Zealand in the late 1800s, they came as free subjects of the British Empire, drawn by the promise of a better life. What they found instead was a country that too often greeted them with racial discrimination, unwelcoming policies and openly hostile laws. Yet from those difficult beginnings grew one of the oldest and most enduring Indian community organisations in the world.
This year, the New Zealand Indian Central Association (NZICA) marks its centenary. A newly released documentary, This Is Our Story, tells that rich history through the deeply personal recollections of the people who lived it and the descendants who carry the legacy forward. It is a story of resilience, unity and quiet determination — and it deserves to be told.
From Isolation to Unity
The earliest Indian settlers were few in number and widely scattered. Faced with prejudice and a lack of belonging, they did what pioneers so often do: they banded together. The Auckland Indian Association was formed in 1918, followed by Wellington in 1925 and the Country Section in 1926.
In April 1926, these three associations joined forces to create the New Zealand Indian Central Association, forging a single, unified voice for the Indian pioneers. According to community research, NZICA is understood to be the fifth-oldest organisation of its kind in the world, following bodies established in London, South Africa, the Kingdom of Bahrain and Singapore.
The families who led the way came from across India — Gujarat, Punjab and beyond — arriving through Fiji, Australia and direct sea passage. Many endured extraordinary journeys. One settler's grandfather arrived in Auckland in 1919 aboard a ship carrying more than forty Indians; because he was Indian, he was confined to the vessel and permitted only day passes into the city until he passed a series of tests that granted him the right to remain. Stories like his run through the whole documentary.
Confronting Prejudice
Life in early twentieth-century New Zealand was not easy for Indian settlers. As they saved their earnings and began buying farmland, resentment grew among some European farmers, who formed the New Zealand White League with the express aim of keeping New Zealand "a white man's country."
The prejudice of the era was stark. Newspapers of the 1920s published editorials of shocking bigotry, and local bodies openly discussed barring Asians from owning land. Discrimination reached into everyday life — from segregated cinema seating and refusals of service in barber shops, to being passed over for jobs despite outperforming European applicants.
One contributor recalls sitting a mathematics test for a job at a prestigious Queen Street store as a teenager. She answered every question correctly; her European friend did not. Her friend got the job. Another remembers being refused a haircut as a schoolboy, told he could "sit there all day" but would never be served.
It was precisely this discrimination that gave NZICA its purpose. Through joint advocacy in the newspapers, with councils and with legislative bodies, the community pushed back — and, in the words of one leader, succeeded in getting the White League barred.
Building a Home and a Voice
Denied full acceptance, the community built institutions of its own. In the late 1940s, settlers pooled their resources and fundraised across the country to build a hall in the Country Section — believed to be the first Indian hall built for Indians by Indians, with no outside contribution. It was officially opened in 1953, the year of the Queen's coronation, and has since been granted historical status.
Similar landmarks followed: the redevelopment of the Wellington Indian Association's Bharat Bhavan, and the opening of the Mahatma Gandhi Centre in Auckland — described at its opening by then Prime Minister as "a dream come true for the Indian community of Auckland." These halls became more than buildings; they were places to gather, to screen Bollywood films shared by rail between associations, to teach Gujarati to the next generation, and to call home.
Advocacy That Changed the Nation
Across its hundred years, NZICA has been a persistent and effective advocate. Its members drafted submissions that helped move New Zealand's immigration policy away from a "kith and kin" model favouring British and northern European migrants towards a points-based system — a change that contributes to the roughly 200 nationalities living in New Zealand today.
The Association successfully challenged travel restrictions that prevented Indian New Zealand citizens from visiting Australia without a visa. It lobbied to amend superannuation legislation. It fought to allow the sons-in-law of settlers to live in New Zealand, and it patiently explained to officials that arranged marriages were genuine, lifelong unions.
NZICA also played a notable diplomatic role. Between 1950 and 1958 it acted as a bridge between the governments of India and New Zealand and the community. When both nations closed their high commissions in the early 1980s, community leader Romesh Patel effectively acted as the diplomatic link — until Sir Edmund Hillary was appointed High Commissioner to India in 1985, helping to end the impasse.
Sport, Culture and Women's Leadership
Sport proved a powerful leveller. Playing rugby barefoot alongside Māori and Pākehā teammates built lasting friendships and comradeship, and over seventy years nearly fifty Indians have represented New Zealand across a diverse range of sports — from cricket and hockey to judo, windsurfing, taekwondo, football and tennis.
Women's leadership has been central to the story. The Association's first female committee began in 1971 — the first of its kind in New Zealand. What started as a two-night Navratri celebration at Auckland's Gandhi Hall has grown into a ten-day extravaganza. Women's groups tackled health, education and social issues that immigrant mothers often had no other way to learn about, and NZICA later established a dedicated women's forum. Today women serve throughout the Association's leadership, working, as one contributor put it, "shoulder to shoulder" with men.
A Community Transformed
The contrast between then and now is remarkable. From fewer than a thousand people a century ago, the Indian diaspora in New Zealand now numbers more than 400,000, with a median age of around thirty, and is estimated to contribute close to ten percent of GDP.
The community that once found work only in scrub-cutting, bottle-hawking and market gardening now leads in medicine, law, transport, farming, information technology, finance and business. New Zealand has seen its first Indian and first Indian-born woman members of parliament. NZICA itself has grown from three founding associations into a national body of some twenty-two branches, representing communities across the country and reflecting the full diversity of India's states.
Looking to the Next Hundred Years
The challenges of today differ from those of a century ago. New arrivals are highly educated and ambitious, seeking better opportunities and entrepreneurial success. NZICA's leaders speak of meeting these new needs, of bringing youth into decision-making, of representing all Indian communities — including the Fijian Indian, South African and Malaysian Indian diasporas — and of ensuring the community's voice is heard not only within itself but at every table where decisions are made.
There is a shared conviction running through the documentary: that unity, integrity and democratic values have carried NZICA through its first century, and that its women and young people will carry it through the next.
As one leader reflects, NZICA may well be a role model for how Indian diasporas can flourish anywhere in the world. For a hundred years it has operated in a structured, democratic manner where everyone has an equal say. And as the community steps into its second century, it does so guided — in the words of one member of parliament — "by wisdom, unity and purpose."
This is our story. Here's to the next hundred years.
Watch This Is Our Story in full on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVjjsqe1Rr4