It may be small, but slowly the Polish community is growing and becoming an ethnic group to take note of. Read more about the waves of immigration in this summary of Polish immigration to New Zealand.
The most well-known group of Polish immigrants are the orphans and their caregivers who found a new home at the Polish Children’s Camp in Pahiatua. Two black-and-white documentaries from 1966 (8:49 and 9:21 minutes) can be viewed online at NZ On Screen’s website. They tell the story of 734 Polish children who were adopted by New Zealand in 1944 as WWII refugees.
A slide show with archival audio and a transcript, Pahiatua's Little Poland, (4:20 minutes) can be viewed at New Zealand History Online.
A slide show with archival audio and a transcript, Pahiatua's Little Poland, (4:20 minutes) can be viewed at New Zealand History Online.
The website of the Polish Embassy in Wellington is Poland’s official face on the diplomatic parquet. It offers consular information as well as a news section.
Polish Consulates operate in Christchurch and Auckland. In October 2013 a new Honorary Consul for the North Island excluding Wellington, Boguslaw Nowak, was appointed.
Auckland contact details: street address: Level 4; 44 Khyber Pass Road, Newmarket, Auckland 2023; postal address: PO Box 99177, Newmarket, Auckland
Phone (09) 3774657, fax (09) 3774658, e-mail n.boguslaw@gmail.com
Polish Consulates operate in Christchurch and Auckland. In October 2013 a new Honorary Consul for the North Island excluding Wellington, Boguslaw Nowak, was appointed.
Auckland contact details: street address: Level 4; 44 Khyber Pass Road, Newmarket, Auckland 2023; postal address: PO Box 99177, Newmarket, Auckland
Phone (09) 3774657, fax (09) 3774658, e-mail n.boguslaw@gmail.com
Poles living mainly in the Hamilton region have their own association and website. It is registered in the name of Polish Heritage Association of Waikato & Bay of Plenty.
Multicultural Tauranga (Tauranga Regional Multicultural Council Inc.) is an incorporated society managed by a committed group of volunteers who have a desire to promote and protect the interests of ethnic groups which make up New Zealand’s multicultural society. The organisation’s immediate past president is Polish-born Ewa Fenn, who is also member of the Polish Community Trust, Bay of Plenty.
Anything but official – on the contrary explicitly personal, highly amusing and selectively informative: a blog of two Poles who moved to Whakatane in 2012. Their lifelong love of travelling and sailing had brought them to the Pacific, where they lived and worked in the Pacific Islands and New Zealand before returning to Poland in 1995 - only to move back to New Zealand 17 years later. Ping-pong Poles. Highly recommended reading, highly hilarious at times, but only in Polish. There is also a rudimentary English off-shoot.
Looking for links? So are we. If you know of any relevant organisations of Poles in New Zealand we didn't find, let us know. This is what we are aware of so far:
http://polisheducationaltrust.com/index.php/home
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Federacja-Polskich-Organizacji-w-Nowej-Zelandii/1381697362062485
http://polonia.org.nz/
http://www.poloniaauckland.co.nz/
http://www.polishcommunity.org.nz/Default.aspx?tabid=40
http://www.polishheritage.co.nz/?page_id=4
http://polisheducationaltrust.com/index.php/home
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Federacja-Polskich-Organizacji-w-Nowej-Zelandii/1381697362062485
http://polonia.org.nz/
http://www.poloniaauckland.co.nz/
http://www.polishcommunity.org.nz/Default.aspx?tabid=40
http://www.polishheritage.co.nz/?page_id=4
Looking for Polish literature online? Here is a collection of literature in English and Polish, compiled by Auckland based Roman Antoszewski.
