The Ohu Movement

Abstract

New Zealand has a long history of intentional communities or communes that were established to bring about a life desired by its members that they did not believe was possible in mainstream society.' The earliest such communities in New Zealand were in the middle and latter half of the nineteenth century, and a continuous tradition developed with the Beeville Community about 1933. Such communities are found throughout the world, but New Zealand is unusual in having had a government-sponsored scheme to establish them.

This scheme was known as the Ohu movement, and it came about in 1973 under the initial sponsorship of Norman Kirk. The history of the Ohu Movement is one of great enthusiasm, followed by growing disillusionment. But it is a fascinating story of hope and effort against bureaucratic opposition. In this situation, communities were actually established, and one still exists. Their stories have never been told, and although later an Australian Prime Minister spoke of doing the same thing, he didn't, and it remains an unique part of communal history, the closest analogues being the Kibbutz Movement in Israel and the U .S. Farm Credit Administration communities during the Depression, and neither of these is even a close parallel.