Before the Second World War ended, the 28th (Maori) Battalion had become one of the most celebrated and decorated units of the New Zealand Army. Although some Maori questioned why they should participate in a fight for an empire that had, within modern memory, invaded and occupied their lands, others argued that their participation was the price of citizenship, that it would be an act of Maori self-affirmation to help defend “God, King, and Country.”
Patricia Grace’s Tu tells the story of three brothers who volunteer to serve in the Maori Battalion and serve in Italy during World War Two. The brothers’ enlistment provides a space to establish connections with men of diverse backgrounds, but Grace’s novel questions the long-term implications of a unity forged through empire, violence, and loss. The recurring phrase—“when the world is free”—expresses the hopes that the tremendous sacrifices of the men who fought in the Maori Battalion (the casualty rate was fifty percent higher than the average of New Zealand infantry battalions) would bring Maori and non-Maori into closer contact and mark an end to the institutionalized racism of the 1940s, but it did not. Nor did it lead to an enhanced Maori profile in New Zealand life or help to shape a modern new society. Ultimately, the text suggests that there was little reward or meaning to be derived from the Maori involvement in World War Two.