For literacy this week, we have been reading and summarizing and article called ‘From Influenza to Independence’ and it’s about how Influenza spread through New Zealand and Samoa during WW1. Here is my summary:
On November 7th, 1918, New Zealand sent a ship called Talune out to Samoa. What they didn’t know, however, was that people on board were infected with a new and deadly virus, known as influenza. Colonel Logan, the president of New Zealand at the time refused to quarantine the ship and it arrived in Samoa.
Pretty soon around 8500 Samoans had been killed from the disease, around a quarter of the population.
In December 1929, a bunch of Samoans set out in the country’s capital, Apia, and started what is known as the Mau Movement. It was meant to be peaceful, but 11 Samoans were killed by New Zealand Military Police. The day became known as Black Saturday.