Treaty of Waitangi in Education

Wellington Girls College

Jen Margaret
Te Tiriti o Waitangi @ Wellington Girls College
Session 1: Why we have a Treaty and what it says
Context and content
Session 2: What went wrong & where we are now
Colonisation and current issues
Session 3: Engaging with the Treaty
Implications for practice
Why we have a Treaty and what it says
Context:
The Treaty in education
The context for the Treaty
Content:
Te Tiriti o Waitangi understanding the
commitments made
Wellington Girls College will prepare young
women to go out into the world as independent
thinkers with respect for themselves and others,
the confidence to accept and respond to
challenges, and an enduring passion for learning.
 M te kahukura ka rere te manu,
ka rere runga rawa
Adorn the bird with feathers
and let it fly, let it soar

We are 23 years away from the

bicentenary of the Treaty, and how
would it be for us to be able to stand in
2040 and be proud of what had been
achieved between now and then?
Bill English, Waitangi Day 2017
 Law
Education
Health
Governance
Justice
Religion/spirituality
Relationship to land
Whanaungatanga
Manaakitanga
Mana
Kotahitanga
Utu
Tapu / Noa
Wairuatanga
Kaitiakitanga
 Underpinnings of power - mana
Firstly the power [mana] was bound by law and
could only be exercised in ways consistent with
tikanga and thus the maintenance of
whakapapa relationships and responsibilities.
Secondly the power was held as a taonga
handed down from the tpuna to be exercised
by the living for the benefit of the mokopuna.
For those reasons it was a constitutional
authority that could never be ceded or given
away. Matike Mai Aotearoa 2015
 Early European observations

Samuel Marsden,
1814
Joseph Banks Augustus Earle
1769 1832
Mori before 1835

He Tohu
 Waikato,
Hongi Hika &
Thomas Kendall

Rawiri Taiwhanga:
Ngti Tautahi of Te
Uri-o-Hua
Pre-Treaty Relationships
In 1800
200,000
By 1840
150,000

200
2,000

Traders
Missionaries
Settlers
 Relationship issues

Lawless Pkeh
Cultural conflict
French

James Busby,
British Resident
Eruera Pare Hongi 1833-1840
 He Whakaputanga o
te Rangatiratanga o Nu Tireni:
The Declaration of Independence
Proclamation of
sovereignty and
collective authority of
the rangatira
Foreign authority could
be exercised only as they
directed.
Acknowledged by the
British Crown
Te Tiriti o English version
Waitangi

Source: Tangata Tiriti Treaty People

 Te Tiriti o Waitangi
Allows a Governor for Pkeh (Article 1)
Affirms (existing) hap rights
retain sovereignty (Article 2)
retain control of land (Article 2)
culture will be protected (Article 2 & 4)
Promises Mori the rights
that British have (Article 3)
 Spheres of influence
We have concluded that in February 1840
the rangatira who signed te Tiriti did not
cede their sovereignty. That is, they did not
cede their authority to make and enforce law over their
people or their territories. Rather, they agreed to share
power and authority with the Governor. They agreed
to a relationship : one in which they and Hobson were
to be equal equal while having different roles and
different spheres of influence. In essence, rangatira
retained their authority over their hap and
territories, while Hobson was given authority to
control Pkeh. Waitangi Tribunal 2014
hap x 100s
What went wrong & where we are now
Colonisation
Mori responses
Implications for education
Current issues
Responses post-1975
 The agreement and the action
Te Tiriti o Waitangi Colonisation
Political power Assert sovereignty
Economic power Take land
Cultural power Assimilate people
of tangata whenua is
affirmed and upheld
 Colonisation
The foundations of societylaw,
language, natural resources and
customshold up the whare of
Mori society. Every Treaty breach
attacks the foundations
of the whare.
Moana Jackson
 Population 1800 - 1900
Mori Pkeh

1800 200,000 200

1840 150,000 2,000

1860 100,000 100,000

1900 40,000 700,000

 Land and life
DECLINING MAORI CONTROL
100

90

80

70 Maori population

Maori land ownership

60
percentage of total

50

40

30

20

10

Mori Land 1860-2000 (North Island); South Island

 Mori responses
Diverse responses:
parallel structures
petitions
working within parliament
kotahitanga movements
passive resistance
What can we do about it?
 Historical account
Apology

Acknowledgments
Crown apology
Elements of a Cash
+
Assets

typical Financial and Commercial Redress

settlement Ownership
+
Management

package Relationship
Traditional
Association
Cultural Redress
=
Apology Cultural Redress

Financial and Commercial Redress

Total Settlement Package

Source: Office of Treaty Settlements (2015) Healing the past, building a future: A Guide to Treaty of
Waitangi Claims and Negotiations with the Crown
Monetary value of Treaty Settlements
Comparisons
1994 South Canterbury
Finance 2010
$1 billion $1.7b
Annual govt exp. 2016
2013 $1.5 billion $95.9b ($13.8 ed)
2020 $3 billion?? New prisons 2017
$.7b
$25 million Taranaki Whnui $90 mill Town Hall strengthening
Why arent we making
more progress?
Structural (systemic) discrimination occurs
when an entire network of rules and practices
disadvantages less empowered groups while
serving at the same time to advantage the
dominant group. State Services Commission
To be fair. We There have been lots
of initiatives to help
have to treat Mori, if things arent
everybody the changing it must be
same. because Mori cant
be helped.

Weve got the

best race relations
in the world. Its all in the
Were better than past. We need
Australia. to move on.
The most difficult thing about
majorities is not that they cannot
see minorities, but that they
cannot see themselves. There is
no contrast, no dissonance,
everything is white on white.
Glenn Colquhoun, Jumping Ship, 2004
 The default in education
Culturally specific systems designed for Pkeh
- Underpinned by an understandings from elsewhere

Embedded thinking / unconscious bias

 Imperative to act
Inaction is a form of structural racism.
Where government services do not
respond to the specific needs of ethnic
groups, the absence of initiatives
perpetuates barriers.
A fair go for all? HRC

Eldridge Cleaver
Responding - the Treaty as a guide
Addressing the impacts of colonisation
equity strategies

Building better relationships upholding

Treaty commitments
Engaging across lines of difference

TeachNZ
 Engaging with the Treaty:
Implications for practice
The story so far
The Treaty articles guiding practice
Resources
Action

Te Tiriti o Waitangi created

a relationship that was intended to be ongoing, reciprocal,
based on trust and good faith and mutually advantageous.
Joan Metge
Wellington Girls College will prepare young
women to go out into the world as independent
thinkers with respect for themselves and others,
the confidence to accept and respond to
challenges, and an enduring passion for learning.
Rangatahi perspectives: He Tohu
 Treaty articles guiding practice
Kwanatanga: honourable governance based on:
a commitment to mutually beneficial relationships
the uniqueness of where we are located
Rangatiratanga: Mori self-determination
ritetanga: equity for Mori
 Understanding your positioning
The great force of history comes from the fact
that we carry it within us, are unconsciously
controlled by it in many ways, and history is
literally present in all that we do. James Baldwin
Understanding our stories

Engaging across lines of difference: TeachNZ

Skills for relationship
We need to build peoples ability to work
with others to produce new knowledge that
solves authentic real-world problems.
Catching the Knowledge Wave, Jane Gilbert
 Te reo me na tikanga
As a subject
Normalisation school-wide
How does your practice reflect your location?
Whanaungatanga
Manaakitanga Mana
Kotahitanga Utu
Tapu / Noa
Wairuatanga
Kaitiakitanga
 Who is at the
decision-making table?
What are our
commitments to this
relationship?
Self-determination
 Ttaiako
Competencies
Kia Eke Panuku: Realising
Academic Potential

https://kep.org.nz/video/qc-video-4-realising-academic-potential
Resources to support this journey
Your voyage
Organisational
Professional
Personal
Supporting your students to soar
Supporting the development
of self-determining students,
enabled to fully contribute
to a Treaty-based
multicultural Aotearoa
 Acting
One learning
One action (what is my contribution?)

The first step (to achieve this action)

I have great optimism that things are getting better. In
the last quarter century, there's been a tremendous
cultural revolution and renaissance of Mori people.
That has gathered pace and the state has gone along
with it. New Zealand culture is undergoing a
tremendous transformation as a consequence of that.
I've lived through that, been part of the revolution, the
struggle for a place in the sun. We are a much better
society now than we were 30, 40 years ago. It's all
happening.
Dr Ranginui Walker
Sunday Magazine
November 2015
 jen@groundwork.org.nz
Ph: 021 1100 799
www.groundwork.org.nz
Presentation copyright Jen Margaret.
Please do not distribute without permission.