Kiwi and the Dervish : A Short History of Bosnian Settlement in New Zealand

Emigration from Bosnia-Herzegovina to New Zealand invariably affects, and often undermines, the core religious practices and affiliations of Slavic Muslims. Research suggests that most of these immigrants and refugees have subsumed a key feature of their unique Balkan heritage in order to integrate into mainstream society, the Anglo-European population in this predominantly Protestant-Christian nation in the South Pacific. My study aims to elucidate this historic phenomenon through an exploration of multiple biographies of several working class persons, within the context of the wider picture of Bosnian settlement here. This essay asks: to what degree does personal motivation appear to influence participation in the wider, shared spiritual tradition of Islam in a minority societal context? Predicated on a review of the available literature, my research suggests a complex socio-economic bricolage. Through a case study design my analysis demonstrates that most Bosnian immigrants and refugees over the twentieth century were more concerned with tangible material objectives than theological principles or goals. These results indicate that, overall, religion played less of a role in their private and public lives historically compared to Asian and African immigrants and refugees. On this basis, it is suggested that in future Muslim social and religious organisations based in Bosnia make greater efforts to liaise with their diaspora populations even at these further-most edges of the earth and provide better spiritual leadership. Further research is necessary to identify other aspects that could strengthen Bosnian Muslim culture outside Europe.


Introduction
The intention of this essay is to outline a short history of the Bosnian Muslim minority in New Zealand, from the earliest recorded evidence in the 1900s to the present. Bosnian Muslims comprise a small minority within the total New Zealand Muslim congregation, however their significance for a fuller comprehension of Islam in New Zealand is greater than their numbers suggest. The census of 1996 revealed that there were 213 'South Slav' Muslims living in New Zealand, with 162 people identifying specifically as 'Bosnian' according to the 2013 census, but both these figures are widely believed to be underestimates (Wellington, 1997;Wilson, 2015). Presently the broader Islamic community in New Zealand numbers over 40,000, most of whom are Asian or African (New Zealand Official Yearbook, 2010). The figures for 'European' Muslims stand at 4353 (Wilson, 2015). Overall the New Zealand Muslim minority is exceptionally diverse in character, ethnicity, employment, education and geographic spread -making succinct generalisations about the evolving associations and relationships, and B S OSNIA TUDIES N Vol. IV, No. 1 (2020) the precise details of such a diffuse group, their character or ethos, ever more challenging.
This article examines a section of the European Muslim population and tentatively explores how they have negotiated their private and public identities as Islamic New Zealanders on their own terms. It is possible that some scholars will note that it is near to impossible to write a compressive history of the Bosnian Muslims here simply because there are so few. According to this logict, there is insufficient material available to reveal anything truly profound or to make useful insights about the wider Muslim community because the Slavic Muslims (as physiological Europeans) are un-typical of the racial or ethnic minority experience of Islam in this land. There is not enough extant documentation for a thorough academic analysis. To date only William Shepard and Erich Kolig have written any in depth histories of the New Zealand Muslim population and these have tended to focus on the dominant Asian majority (See: Shepard, 1980;1982;1985;1995;2002;Shepard and Humphrey, 1999;Kling, 2009). Madjar's research on Bosnian refugees of the 1990s is an extremely useful exception to this rule (Madjar and Humpage, 2000). I think that we can demonstrate otherwise however: what is recorded about the religious dispositions of the myriad of identified Bosnians is perhaps as significant as what was not. In fact, textual uncertainties and tensions produce an unexpected amount of relatable data, and the study of these apparently inscrutable contradictions and intricacies can contribute to a deeper comprehension in our understanding of the history of Muslims and Islam in New Zealand. It must be noted that European Muslim immigrants have been generally overlooked and are frequently underrepresented in both mainstream Muslim minority literature and in the wider historiography of New Zealand. For many New Zealand Muslims, multiple identities are common place enough but terms like 'Europeans' and 'Pakeha' (the Maori word for European) are often used as synonyms. Conversely 'Muslim' is assumed throughout New Zealand to mean non-European 'ethnic minority', to some extent. My approach has been basically historical, grounded in empirical investigation and research, and underpinned by a conceptualisation of identity as a fundamentally dynamic process that has constantly evolved. The term 'Bosnian Muslim' is a broad term I will use broadly here to cover Slavic Muslims from Bosnia, Herzegovina, and the Sandžak of Novi Pazar (a distinctive former Ottoman district currently divided between Serbia and Montenegro), and all territories often referred to as the former lands of Yugoslavia excluding Macedonia. 1 Unless otherwise indicated, I will use the term Bosnia to include both the lands of both Bosnia and Herzegovina (for more see: Malcom, 1994;Morrison and Roberts, 2013;Pačariz, 2016 The article was repeated in other newspapers across the country (Feilding Star, 19 October 1909;Mataura Ensign, 20 October 1909;Colonist, 25 October 1909).
It is unclear when the group left New Zealand, but passenger lists prove a Mr "Fetgich" and A. "Galigatovic" (most likely Fetahagic and Galijatovic) left 1928). Osman Fetagic journeyed to Indiana, USA, where worked in a steel mill before retiring to Herzegovina after the war, where he died in 1964. Although this unique group of young men left no specific legacy in New Zealand (in terms of constructing a mosque or leaving names on the geography and so forth), I believe we can assume that such a pious collection of Muslims -steadfastly wearing their fezes, residing and working in close proximity to one another -may well have prayed together: there is every reason to believe they may very well have formed the first Jamaat in New Zealand (Karčić, 2015(Karčić, , 2015aDrury 2015Drury , 2015aRizvanović, 2016;Wölfl, 2016).
Decades later, in July 1950, the first Muslim organisation in the entire country was created when the 'New Zealand Muslim Association' was established in Auckland, entirely through the efforts of Indian Muslim migrants (Drury, 2006 There have been two waves of Bosnian and Sandžaklije migrants to settle in New Zealand. The first arrived on the MS Goya in 1951 through the auspices of the IRO -International Refugee Organisation, a precursor to the UNHCR (Plowman, 2006). The second important group arrived during the 1992-95 war in Bosnia. In between, and after, there was a regular trickle of individuals and families.
Compared to Muslim immigrants from Asia, Dr. Shepard wrote that eastern European Muslims had 'been quicker to adopt Kiwi ways, more inclined to marry into the Kiwi community, and more likely to attenuate its Muslim identity.' (Shepard, 1985). ('Kiwi' is a Maori term for native New Zealanders of both Maori and Anglo-European heritage.) Are the Bosnian Muslims of New Zealand a specific identity group within the wider Islamic minority in this country then? Anthony D. Smith (1991) suggested there are six key features in any given ethnic identity: a collective proper name or appellation, some degree of common myth of shared ancestry, the carefully communicated perception of shared historical memories, one or more elements of a common culture, an association with a specific geographical homeland or topography, and above all a strong sense of solidarity. Certainly the Bosnians here qualify as a type of diaspora: pressured to some extent or another to leave their indigenous lands (economically or politically), along with the generation or maintenance of collective memories of such a homeland, and a curious degree of both integration and alienation from the host society. It is intriguing however that all three Bosniak-focused communal associations registered after 1990 failed and were struck off (see below). Madjar wrote: 'Many of the Bosnians who arrived in the '90s were more interested in assimilating to the Kiwi way of life than pursuing their heritage through cultural activities' (Murray, 2012). This is polite language. Clearly Bosnian Muslim immigrants and refugees arriving in the 1990s were not attracted to the Asian-dominated mosque network, nor were they motivated to establish their own spiritual centre. Equally ethnic, religious and linguistic ties were not enough to bind these Bosnians closely together within New Zealand during this time frame. Madjar's research on Bosnian refugee health at Massey University in the late 1990s emphasized the central problem of unemployment during this decade and the glacial reluctance of authorities to help facilitate urgently desired family reunifications: the various New Zealand agencies and services were more concerned with communicable diseases and bureaucratic processes than assessing their personal priorities or the mental health issues amongst traumatised concentration camp survivors (Madjar and Humpage, 2000 The 1990s war in Bosnia had an incalculable effect on the diaspora in New Zealand. Through many sacrifices and the payment of large sums of money, the Hodzic family successfully managed to bring over their remaining siblings and their families to Auckland as refugees. The New Zealand government committed itself to accepting 50 internees from the 'detention centres' at Keraterm, Omarska and Trnopolje. In early December 1992, the first war refugees arrived: 30 former detainees and 10 members of their families allowed temporary asylum (Press, 1992 (Harris, 1993).
Concerned that the matter of family reunification was proceeding too slowly, and some suspecting that there was an agenda to do nothing at all, the Bosnians requested a meeting with the Minister of Immigration who came to the [Mangere Refugee Resettlement] Centre to hear their concerns ... Within a year, most were reunited with remaining family members (Madjar and HUmpage, 2000).
With over two million refugees driven from their residences during the fighting, New Zealand accepted a rather parsimonious 143 Bosnian refugees between December 1992 and June 1997. The authorities undertook to settle as many as possible in Auckland (Madjar and Humapge, 2000). During the height of the conflict, the largest single influx -83 people -arrived between 1 July 1993 and 30 June 1994 (Refugee and Migrant Service Annual Report 1997-98). 6 Eleven were permitted to enter from 1995 to 1998 under the government's refugee resettlement plan. Surprisingly, these were the last to enter New Zealand on the official refugee programme (Refugee and Migrant Service Annual Report 1993-94). 7 On 20 January 1993 Television New Zealand journalist Simon Mercep interviewed several of the new refugees on the Holmes Show. They discussed their experiences of the ruinous war through a translator and were filmed in the beachy suburbs of Auckland.
Demal Hodzic was a founding member of the Bosnian and Herzegovinian Society, set up in September 1994. However there was an immediate tension within the community as several of the Muslim men who had been interned in concentration camps objected to the presence of Bosnian Serbs who were in mixed marriages with Muslims. A year later, the Bosniak Cultural Union of New Zealand Incorporated was registered on 1 November 1995. Both these associations operated for six years before being struck off as inactive after several key members left the country or concentrated their attentions on work or family matters. The Bosnian-Hercegovinian Society Incorporated was set up on 18 April 2001, with Demal Hodzic's nephew Emir serving as the first president. Members met monthly to arrange a spit lamb meal but eventually this organisation folded as well.
In 1992, Demal Hodzic served as Patron of the South Auckland Muslim Association and thereafter he became involved in the financing and maintenance of the 6 For an excellent summary of the Bosnian refugee experience, depressingly reminiscent of Musovich's own experiences seventy years earlier, see : Department of Labour, Immigration Service, 'Ferida' in Refugee Women: The New Zealand Refugee Quota Programme (Wellington, 1994), pp. 56-57. 7 One Bosnian refugee reported: 'We used to watch stories of the Somali refugees on television and think to ourselves, 'It's so far away.' And we would turn the channel to another station. Then one day we looked behind us and found soldiers with guns at our backs. And then we were refugees, just like the Somalis. Otahuhu Islamic Centre and its later upgrade into a proper mosque, the Masjid-e-Mustafa (Allely, 2001). He died of a heart attack whilst working alone in his flat on 11 October 2004 and was buried near his brothers Shafik and Hassan Hodzic at the Memorial Gardens in South Auckland. Perhaps the best praise came from Hajji Gul Zaman, a former president of the Association, who wrote a glowing obituary in the FIANZ newsletter years later: Demal was a unique individual who was very passionate. Committed, persistent, humble, generous, industrious, helpful, dedicated, charitable and pious. Even though he was 72 years of age and not in the best of health, his concern was always for the welfare of the Muslims, particularly those of South Auckland (Zaman, 2006).
Bosnian Muslims of the 1990s wave also settled in the South Island. In the early 1990s, with the conflict in Bosnia raging, the Otago Daily Times often interviewed Dr. Biljana Juric after she took up a four year contract as a senior marketing lecturer at Otago University. 'Ms Juric is herself a Muslim but is uncomfortable with the label. 'I was raised like a Yugoslavian' (Malthus, 1993). Juric fled Sarajevo on 14 April, 12 days after the fighting began, along with her elderly mother, her mother's friend and the friend's three-year old great-granddaughter (Smeele, 1993). Once in New Zealand she sent money and parcels back to the war zone but many did not arrive (Press, 1994). A year after the peace treaty, Dr Juric obtained New Zealand citizenship in October 1996 (Brookland, 1996). Six months later, her 77 year old mother, Razija Hadziomerspahic also secured New Zealand citizenship (Howe, 1997). Dr Juric later relocated to Auckland and took up employment with at the University of Auckland Business School.
Another interesting Muslim migrant in the region was Halid Alic from the Sandžak region in Serbia. In 1998 Alic was interviewed and his testimonial recorded in a Department of Internal Affairs publication: 'Halid Alic arrived in New Zealand in [June] 1993 to escape the Balkans wars. As he reflected, 'the trouble started in Slovenia, in Croatia, and then in Bosnia -in Sarajevo. Sarajevo is 150 kilometres from my home town, and it was too close' (Hutching, 1998 1993(Forrester, 1994. The American author Janine di Giovanni wrote several pages on the Kafedzic family experiences in Sarajevo in her award winning book The Quick and the Dead: Under Siege in Sarajevo (Di Giovanni, 1994). During the 1999 Kosova crisis, a resident in Christchurch named Gerry Kostic made threats against the entire Kafedzic family after they attended anti-war demonstrations and he was prosecuted in court (Star, 1999;Press, 1999). That same year Mrs Fatima Kafedzic, the family matriarch, was interviewed by The Press and later in the year she organised a girls 'pyjama party' -arranging for donations of children's pyjamas to be donated to refugee children in Sarajevo (Press, 1999;2000 The book about their escape from the war in their home country and the fate of their family was very well received across the country and reviews appeared in all the major newspapers (see: Gillies, 2011;Munro, 2011;Bridges, 2011;Anthony, 2011;Murray, 2012). One other Bosnian refugee fled to Canterbury at the same time: Aza Mehmedovic, a native of Goradze, married a New Zealand soldier stationed in Bosnia and he helped facilitate her escape. She settled in Christchurch in June 1994. Two years later in November 1996 she published her account in a well-received book entitled (imaginatively enough) Escape from Bosnia: Aza's Story (McCauley, 1996;see also: Fleming, 1996;Swain, 1996;Packer, 1996;Schwass, 1996).  (Morton, 2007;Smith, 2007;Neal, 2009;Shanks, 2010). As testament to his appeal and broad network of contacts, Dzilic was invited to perform at the opening of 'proceedings at the Mana Party's 8 campaign launch in South Auckland' in 2011 (Chapman, 2011). In April 2016 he was asked to comment nationally on the Karadzic verdict in Holland (Dominion-Post, 2016). Uniquely Dzilic remains a dedicated performer committed to vocalising unpopular political messages regarding the poor and oppressed folk of the world (Shanks, 2012).

Conclusion
On 9 August 2013, over a hundred years after the honorary Austrian consul-general was called upon to represent Bosnian Muslim interests, the Republic of Bosnia-Hercegovina opened its first honorary consulate in Auckland. The ceremony was attended by Dr. Damir Arnaut, the Bosnian ambassador to Australia and New Zealand, representatives of the consular corps and the New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, plus several Bosnian citizens resident here. The aim of my text has been to briefly overview the history of the entire Bosnian Muslim community of New Zealand, as this offers invaluable insights into the broader perspectives of Islam in this country, not to mention other themes such as minority migration and integration. I wanted to spotlight the biographies of the immigrants rather than specific topics for this formative period, because I believe that their intriguing lives reveal much about the broader Muslim cultural practices. Clearly more research is needed here as, with the important exception of Madjar, most of the research and history focusing on Muslims in New Zealand to date has methodologically focused on Asian experiences and viewpoints.
The narrative of Bosnian settlement in New Zealand serves as a helpful, useful microcosm of the wider immigrant Muslim experience. Particular aspects feature prominently. For instance, the Slavic Muslims who settled and integrated did not all originate in one particular village, town or locale. Nor did they restrict themselves to settling down in one specific region together with other Bosnians. There were both Sandžaklije and Sarajlije. There was no specific Bosnian colony (compared to say, the German speaking Bohemians who settled in Puhoi, or the Danish colonists in Dannevirke.) Although many members of the same family entered the country, there was no obvious chain migration in large numbers. They did not hail from one specific social class, nor did they restrict themselves to any one line of work in their new homeland. They came from all four corners of the traditional Slavic Muslim lands of the former Yugoslavia and although many congregated *ABDULLAH DRURY Kiwi and the Dervish: A Short History of Bosnian Settlement in New Zealand in Auckland for obvious financial reasons. There is an obvious trickle emigration of those, once settled in New Zealand, towards Australia and elsewhere over time. Certain individuals contributed to several nascent Islamic agencies and undoubtedly the 'relatively moderate Islam of European provenance (Albanian and Bosnian) … made a lasting impression' (Koling, 2009). Simultaneously, there was no Bosnian ulema here, no religious leadership. There is proof and indication of individuals negotiating their own personal, familial or group definition of Muslim activity and communal participation according to their own aspirations and understanding of spirituality and the religion. Muslim gum diggers insisted upon wearing their fezzes in court in the 1900s and whilst this may seem picturesque and quaint, the episode also informs us how seriously these men took their religious precepts, culture and heritage. It is also interesting to observe that the early Slavic Muslims migrants who settled in the 1950s, all universally married European women rather than Indian Muslim female migrants. This speaks volumes about the lack of social cohesion amongst the wider Muslim population across racial lines during this period. Curiously, in view of the considerable influx of Muslim refugees from around the world settling in New Zealand during the 1990s and dates thereafter, the Ferkatovich, Kafedzic and Mehmedovic accounts, are the only ones to make it to print (For more on the Kafedzic family, see also: Grant, 1996;Moby, 1999;Press, 2000;Kafedzic, 2006;Eaton, 2006).
In the final analysis of these long historical excurses and surveys, looking to the future, one can only hope that the Bosnian Muslim community will continue to contribute to New Zealand.