Mana Māori Māori Identity and ways of knowing An Indigenous World-view

1. Mana MāoriMāori Identity and ways of knowingAn Indigenous World-view Paper presented By Tānia M. Ka’aiMonday, April 23, 20077:00 PM – 8:30 PMPrincess Ruth Ke’elikōlani Performing Arts CenterChoral Room – 3rd Floor / Kamehameha Schools Kapālama

2. Te Tiriti o Waitangi – The Treaty of Waitangi • Founding document of Aotearoa/New Zealand signed on 6 February 1840 • 2 versions of the Treaty: one in Māori signed by Māori and the other in English • The English version is used by the Crown and accordingly it states that Māori ceded their Sovereignty to the Crown • Māori were guaranteed their tino rangatiratanga (chiefly rights) • Mana (a cultural concept that is used to refer to authority, power, control, influence and prestige in relation to the people, land and the environment). • Māori neverceded their sovereignty

3. The Māori Renaissance • Schooling can only be described as a primary instrument for taming and civilizing the natives • forging a nation which was connected at a concrete level with the historical and moral processes of Britain. • The education system was established in accordance with the “civilizing” agenda of the nineteenth-century state, specifically to facilitate the “Europeanising” of Māori (Simon and Smith (ed.) 2001 pp 1-11). • Māori have struggled to have their language, culture and knowledge systems validated in dominant mainstream New Zealand education for almost 200 years.

4. Chronology of dates and events • 1816: Formal education began in New Zealand. Education provided by missionaries was conveyed in Māori. • 1840: The Treaty of Waitangi was signed. • 1847: George Grey introduced the Education Ordinance Act, that is, an assimilation policy. • 1850s The Pākehā population exceeded the Māori population. The Mäori language became a minority language in Aotearoa/New Zealand society. • 1867:The introduction of the Native Schools Act. Māori people provided the land, and the Government provided the buildings and teachers.

5. Chronology of dates and events • 1880: James Pope, the Inspector of Schools, drew up a Native School Code. • 1896: The official census recorded the Māori populations as reaching its lowest point of 42 113. • 1900: Education authorities took a hard line against the Māori language, which was forbidden in the playground. Corporal punishment was administered to children who disobeyed. • 1907:The Tohunga Suppression Act was introduced outlawing tohunga practices. This, like the assimilation policy of 1847, had the effect of eroding Māori society. • 1930/31: There was a change in direction of educational policy. This was in response 1925 Advisory Committee on African Education. The report recommended that education should be adapted to the traditions and mentality of the people and their institutions.

6. Chronology of dates and events • 1940s: The 28th Māori Battalion joined the World War II allied forces. As a consequence of this, a generation of male native speakers across a number of iwi never returned home. This depleted the numbers of speakers of the language. • The Māori urban migration began, leaving rural communities depleted. • 1950s: Western influences in the cities began to have an influence on Māori families who, as a consequence raised their children as predominately English speakers. • 1952: Māori Studies was first taught as a university subject at Auckland University. • 1960: The Hunn Report drew attention to the educational disparity between Māori and Pākehā. Only 0.5% of Māori children reached the Sixth Form as against 3.78% of Pākehā. One of the significant contributions of the report was the rejection of the assimilation policy. Māori-Pākehā relationships were redefined in terms of ‘integration’. • 1963: The Currie Report emphasised the need to centralise the notion of Māori educational underachievement, and so began a flood of compensatory education programmes.

7. Chronology of dates and events • 1967: The report on Māori Education reflected a growing awareness of biculturalism. ‘It must be remembered that a Māori is both a New Zealander and Māori. S/he has an inalienable right to be both…’ • 1970: Ngā Tamatoa and the Te Reo Māori Society lobbied for the introduction of Māori language in schools. • 1971: The Report of the National Advisory Committee on Māori Education took Māori education off the plateau of the sixties and advanced the concept of bicultural education • 1973: All seven Teachers Colleges had established courses in Māori Studies. Presentation of Māori language petition to Parliament by Ngā Tamatoa. • 1976: 123 secondary schools were recorded as teaching Māori language as a curriculum subject. • 1979: The Te Ātaarangi Movement was established as a community initiative to teach Māori language to adults.

8. Chronology of dates and events • 1980: The Report of the Advisory Council for Māori Education stated “…impressive as these gains in education appear, deeply entrenched attitudes are not changed overnight…negative attitudes to things Māori remain the legacy from our colonial history of cultural imperialism. • Television New Zealand screened Koha, a 30-minute Māori magazine programme. Experiments and pilots in Māori radio broadcasting led to the establishment of Te Ūpoko o te Ika in Wellington. • 1981: The Hui Whakatauira of Māori leaders proposed and established the first Te Kōhanga Reo as a response to the imminence of language death. • 1985: The first Kura Kaupapa Māori was established at Hoani Waititi Marae, West Auckland. • 1986: The Report of the Waitangi Tribunal on the Te Reo Māori Claim (WAI 11) asserted that te reo Māori was a taonga guaranteed protection under Article II of Te Tiriti o Waitangi. • 1987: The Māori Language Act recognised Māori as an official language

9. Chronology of dates and events • 1989: The Education Amendment Act formally recognised Kura Kaupapa Māori and Wānanga as educational institutions. • 1993: Te Māngai Pāoho, a Māori broadcasting funding agency was established to promote Māori language and culture through the media. • 1997: There was a strong push from Māori involved in initiatives to increase the numbers of speakers of te reo Māori. The effects amounted to Te Kōhanga Reo, established since 1981, catering to 13 505. • 54 Kura Kaupapa Māori, established since 1985 • Three Wānanga had been established since 1981. • Over 32 000 students were recorded as receiving Māori medium education. • 55 399 students were recorded as learning the Māori language. • 1998: The government announced funding for a Māori television channel. • 2001: The number of Māori speakers stabilised at around 130 500 people between 1996 and 2001, which constitutes 25% of the Māori population.

10. Redressing the injustices of colonization • lobbying, • making submissions, • presenting petitions, • mounting deputations, • occupying land under dispute, • establishing various movements, • marches, protests, boycotts, pickets, • symbolic acts and demonstrations • establishing political parties. • non-Indigenous peoples attitudes of subjugation reducing Māori to a powerless minority in their own country

11. Cultural Renaissance • taonga pūoro (traditional Māori instruments), • Te Matatini (National Māori Performing Arts Festival) • An increasing number of Māori weavers, carvers and fashion designers profile Māori artworks at their very best. • Waka-ama (outrigger canoe racing) regattas • the revitalisation of tā moko (tattoo) • Māori music

12. Challenges • Decolonise • Celebrate the feats of our ancestors gaining courage and inspiration from them to fight for the legitimacy of our world-view in the contemporary world

13. He whakaaro John Rangihau argued that it was about time that Māori: “were allowed to think for ourselves and to say things for our reasons and not for the reasons set down by Pakeha experts. The Māori is content to stand right where he is, retain his own culture and retain his own identity, and be himself, not a foreigner in his own country”.