1 October 2013 – Ae Marika
Posted on October 1, 2013 by admin in NewsI’ve been working with the whanau in Helensville on a little problem they have down there. Seems one of the local primary schools wants to shut down the Maori Unit – problem with numbers being too low and the school can’t afford to keep it going.
Now while Te Reo Maori is no longer compulsory in schools, it is an official language of New Zealand, it is the native language of Aotearoa and it is an inherent part of our country’s history and culture … and yet this school wants to shut the Maori Unit and teach Spanish instead!
The school population is 48% Maori and the Maori teacher is not only qualified, she’s fluent as well. And there’s no Spanish kids at the school, but the school wants to shut the Maori Unit and teach Spanish …
Anyway, the local iwi of Kaipara offered to cover the shortfall because they’ve got a lot of their mokos at the school and they wanted to ensure that their kids were able to learn Maori as part of their education. Great idea – problem solved then. But no … the school still wanted to shut the Maori Unit.
So I asked a few questions and found out that the school is sitting on land that has just been returned to the iwi a couple of months ago as part of their historical Treaty settlement. But apparently that didn’t matter to the Board. They still wanted to shut the Maori Unit.
Then I find out that there was no consultation with the whanau at all until they got a letter in July 2013, the first time they had even been aware that there might be a problem (about the same time the iwi got the land handed back) and three months later they get told the Maori Unit is being closed.
I gotta say …this little problem has a bad, bad stench of racism.
Anyway, I’ve recommended that the whanau: meet with all the Maori families to get their support for the Unit staying open; ask the Ministry to intervene on their behalf to get the Maori Unit restarted; and ask a couple of other kura to provide cover for their kids in case their request for reinstatement drags on – Tau Te Arohanoa Akoranga, a Christian-based school in Helensville that I helped when they were in strife a few years back, and Te Kura Kaupapa Maori o Hoani Waititi in Henderson.
Coming a week after my last article about how very positive the Tai Tokerau Kapahaka Competitions were, this case is a nice little reminder that while most schools are doing their best to help Maori students engage in education, for some, there is still clearly a long, long way to go.
AE MARIKA is an article written every week by Hone Harawira, leader of the MANA Movement and Member of Parliament for Te Tai Tokerau. You are welcome to use any of the comments and to ascribe them to Mr Harawira. The full range of Hone’s articles can be found on the MANA website at mana.org.nz
Trisya Hemana says:
Post Author October 8, 2013 at 8:19 pmWell said. The school governance should be ashamed of what they have done…bullying tactics used towards the kaiako, parents, students of parents; lying to the whanau so they(governance) don’t have to talk about it with the whanau, isolating the class from the rest of the school except for shared sports day once a week, issues raised in whanau hui not acknowledged by school governance although the minute taker at the hui is the Deputy Principal; outdated information regarding the class…. The list goes on and on. I’ve supported this kura for over 15 years with my other children & am totally disgusted by the actions of these so called role models! E pouri ana mo nga tamaariki o Te Whare Kakano Bilingual Unit, including my daughter.