April 05, 2016
When we deny our history – we deny ourselves
When we deny our history – we deny ourselves
MARTYN 'BOMBER' RADBURY
After the Maori Affairs select committee presented a student led petition to have the NZ land wars included in the national curriculum, the Ministry of Education decided to refuse the request.
Why?
The Ministry of Education claimed such a decision would erode the autonomy of schools to decide which parts of the curriculum they wish to include and which parts they wish to ignore.
It turns out the autonomy of ignorance is more important than the next generation understanding the full enormity of land loss and its impact of poverty over generations.
So many of the problems this country has with its race relations would be solved if Pakeha simply knew the history of their own country. Not the racist version the Prime Minister likes to offer up of peaceful colonisation, but the dirty scum baggy truth of our colonial forefathers and mothers.
If Pakeha understood how their success has been mostly built upon stolen land and broken treaty, they would listen instead of shut down when Maori aired grievance. There would be understanding instead of contempt and there would be a true sense of responsibility and obligation in closing those present day gaps.
We don't have that.
Instead we get a Ministry of Education far more focused on allowing our history to be denied and shunned then force universal adoption of it.
No wonder Maori are viewed as the problem. No wonder our young people stay away from politics. No wonder that sense of national identity remains a stagnant dream we can never capture.
By denying our history we deny understanding and when we deny understanding we make impossible a better future.
Martyn Bradbury
Editor – TheDailyBlog.co.nz
Waatea 5th Estate
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