Getting it right

Tu Tangata, Issue 27, 1 December 1985, Page 17

Getting it right

Maori school teachers recently met in Auckland with Education Minister. Russell Marshall to register their frustration with the poor recognition mana maori is getting in the schools. The minister promised to get back to them after considering their suggestions in terms of policy developments. However in a subsequent radio interview he voiced his concern that many people including Maori teachers can't see the rapid progress the government has made in bicultural education. And they also can't see that this impatience could trigger a backlash in the pakeha community, he said. He said he was aware of people “deaf to the impassioned anger" of the Maori people at the loss of language and culture. . When questioned about separate Maori schools, particularly the new one at Hone Waititi Marae in West Auckland, he said he was reluctant to see any further development in that area, and that was why he wanted to get as much done within the existing schools so that pressure for others would be lessened. However the minister seems to be confusing bilingual education, 'taha maori' education and separate Maori education. The Treaty of Waitangi guaranteed ‘te tino rangatiratanga' to the Maori people. that is Maori sovereignty to look after their own needs in their own way. That is the kaupapa that separate Maori schools are based on. ‘Taha maori' education is a pakeha response to a pakeha need, to know and understand more about the tangata whenua of Aotearoa and what it means to be pakeha in the Polynesian Pacific. It is not a substitute for bilingual education. Bilingual education is the birthright of all New Zealanders to share in the taonga given to and safeguarded by the Maori, that is te reo rangatira. maori language. Bilingual education, that is maori and english languages both used as the medium of education, was also guaranteed by the Treaty when the Queen of England accorded to the Maori people all the rights and privileges that British subjects have under British law. That is the right to be educated in your mother tongue with the safeguarding provisions. As much as this holds true for pakeha. it holds true for Maori. This then is the essence of what Maori teachers, parents and others along with pakeha New Zealanders are growing impatient for.