Kaupapa Māori and a new curriculum in Aotearoa/New Zealand

While geographical education is our focus in this paper, the broader colonial history of education is the backdrop against which we first view the principles of Māori geographies in education. The essay underscores the importance of ‘authenticity’, the participation of local communities and local studies connected to local environments and histories. We use an educational program of the Raglan Area School on Whaingaroa Harbour as an illustrative example. The geographies of Whaingaroa Harbour provide an exemplary context for programs in geographical education and we suggest that the new curriculum in both English and Te Reo Māori (Māori language) can enhance the movement towards bi-cultural education in Aotearoa/New Zealand. Our argument is that the 2007 curriculum creates the opportunity; the impediments lie in providing appropriate resources and developing community support for the delivery of the bicultural educational approaches. is an important issue in debates about educational policy and implementing a new curriculum in Aotearoa/New Zealand. This paper explores how the development of the 2007 curriculum in Aotearoa/New Zealand attempted to address curriculum, teaching and learning options for Māori. Māori are a significant national community with needs and aspirations in education. Māori have tangata whenua status in Aotearoa/New Zealand, where this term acknowledges the arrival and settlement of migrant people of the Pacific centuries prior to significant European colonization in the 19th Century. While progress has been made in Māori education since the significant Treaty of Waitangi Act in 1975, we wish to explore the potential of Kaupapa Māori (Māori practice) in the development of a new curriculum, Te Marautanga o Aotearoa

Inside the Resource Management Act: A Tainui Case Study

Under the Resource Management Act (RMA) 1991 councils are required to promote the sustainable management of physical and natural resources within their respective areas. In carrying out their duties, councils are obliged to recognise and provide for the relationship of Māori with their culture, traditions, lands, waters and other taonga. They are also required to have regard to kaitiakitanga, and to take into account the principles of te Tiriti o Waitangi when making decisions. This thesis focuses on the RMA experiences of Tainui, a hapū in Whaingaroa. It sets out to prove that in the last 19 years, since the enactment of the RMA, Waikato councils have failed to honour these obligations to Tainui. While the RMA specifically provides for Māori interests, in reality those interests are contested and eroded by decision makers who write and enforce rules which inequitably affect Māori relationships with land and other taonga. The thesis engages multiple theories and methodologies including Kaupapa Māori, critical theory, autobiography, and a longitudinal case study to expose personal experiences that bring the realities of planning impacts on Tainui to life. The fact that Tainui has successfully appealed several council decisions to the Environment Court indicates that councils are failing to meet their obligations as laid out in the legislation.