Maori students are kicking off their annual conference in Wellington with a march to parliament for the freedom of West Papua.
Ivy Harper, the tumuaki of the national Maori students’ association Te Mana Akonga, says what’s happening in the Indonesian province resonates with Maori history.
She says what happens to one indigenous people happens to all, and the freedoms Maori take for granted are denied to West Papuans – including the freedom to meet and to speak their own language.
Ms Harper says Te Mana Akonga wants the New Zealand Government to speak up in international forums in support of West Papuan freedom.
It is also pushing for te reo Maori to be compulsory in schools, rather than just being a curriculum option, and for school children to be taught the history of their own whenua.
Copyright © 2016, UMA Broadcasting Ltd: www.waateanews.com
