The Tāmaki Treaty Workers’s submission commends the emphasis on developing critical citizenship in the draft History curriculum, but warns against the education system’ perpetuation of colonising interpretations of Māori peoples as well as historical events and processes.

Te Tiriti and English versions

An example is such interpretations is the draft curriculum’s persistent use of the phrase “Te Tiriti o Waitangi and The Treaty of Waitangi”. This confuses and equates te Tiriti o Waitangi, which was debated and signed by Māori at Waitangi in 1840 and elsewhere, with an English version by missionary Henry Williams that Governments have and continue to use to further colonise Māori.

The rangatira who signed te Tiriti o Waitangi did not cede sovereignty to the British Crown, as the Waitangi Tribunal concluded in Wai 1040 in 2014, in response to the Ngāpuhi Treaty claim; however, the English version erroneously states that they did. Under the international principle of contra proferentem, te Tiriti has precedence over the English version. To equate te Tiriti with the English version undermines critical citizenship.

Implementation: Reliance on unfunded hapū

TTW has two major concerns about how this curriculum will be implemented. The first is its expectation that hapū and iwi will share their histories with students from schools in their rohe, without resourcing for such a huge demand.

The Department of Education played a central part in disrupting Māori peoples’ transmission of their histories, with the result that many hapū and iwi are struggling to ensure that their own people know these histories. This task may be more important to some hapū than responding to the information demands of schools.

TTW believes that the Ministry must support hapū to share their histories with their own people, before schools start presenting their children with an apparently official version. At the same time the Ministry must ensure that any hapū or iwi who are unable or unwilling to engage with schools are not marginalised or overlooked.

Implementation: Potential aggressive disagreement with the new curriculum

TTW’s second concern is the likelihood that some students who share their new history knowledge with their families will be met with aggressive disagreement, and that such parental disagreement will be vented onto schools.

It is the Ministry’s responsibility to ensure that teachers, schools and students are equipped for such situations, by providing appropriate professional development, help, and other resources.

Full submission text

See https://drive.google.com/file/d/1BaoWDZosLyP7eHyHtjXXW7JFS-REanu7/view?usp=sharing

Tāmaki Treaty Workers is a network of groups and individuals in Tāmaki-makau-rau/ Auckland who affirm Te Tiriti o Waitangi as the basis for the future of Aotearoa.

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