Sikhs want a bit of recognition

They were New Zealand's forgotten people, working in the backblocks clearing gorse and scrub for farmland.

As celebrations of the Sikh calendar's most important festival take place this weekend, a prominent Sikh leader is asking for the community's 115-year pioneering legacy to be formally recognised.

Ajit Singh Randhawa, founder and president of the Auckland Sikh Society, said despite their long history in the country, Sikhs were still seen as new immigrants. The community, whose numbers are estimated to be between 5000 and 15,000, hardly get a mention in the history books.

Hew McLeod, historian and emeritus professor at Otago University, attributed the Sikhs' invisibility to their small numbers and their preference to settle in rural areas.

"They lived very quiet lives. New Zealanders were quite unaware they were even there."

The Sikhs' long migration from the Punjab region culminated in brothers Bir Singh Gill and Phuman Singh Gill crossing the Tasman from Australia in 1890. By 1920, about 200 were living in New Zealand, doing various odd jobs.

The Immigration Restriction Amendment Act of 1920 - passed to keep non-Europeans out - kept their numbers low until it was eased after World War II. During that time, Sikhs and other minorities also had to contend with the short-lived White New Zealand League. The Sikhs responded by forming the country section of the New Zealand Indian Association.

After World War I, scrub-cutting became their primary form of employment. It was not until the Sikhs' wives and children were allowed to join them that permanent residence began to take shape.

Many settled in the Waikato and South Auckland. Those who could bought farms, said Professor McLeod.

"Dairy farming was entirely congenial to them because they'd come from Punjab villages, and dairy farming was as close to home as you could get here in New Zealand."

Rapid price increases after the 1960s put dairy farming beyond the reach of most Sikhs. Those who missed out moved into the factories of South Auckland. With their savings, they bought and ran petrol stations and dairies.

Mr Singh said all Sikhs wanted was acknowledgement.

"The mere fact is that here is a community that has silently and passively served and pioneered this country for a very, very long time, and at no time has it ever had its hand out to the Government. I do feel there has been very little recognition of the fact."