July 10, 2019
Generation waits for apology for reo suppression
FULL INTERVIEW WITH DOVER SAMEULS CLICK HERE
Former Labour Cabinet Minister Dover Samuels is disappointed the Waitangi Tribunal has refused to write a separate urgent report on his claim against children being punished at school for speaking Maori.
The claim is being part of the Ngapuhi's Te Paparahi o te Raki Claims, and Judge Craig Coxhead says it will be included in the wider report.
But Mr Samuels, who turned 80 yesterday, says it has nothing to do with land loss or the wider issues of the claims, and it's specific to the generation he is part of.
He says it was a matter of crown policy that tolerated children being whipped until they bled for speaking their own language.
"It was the policy that when you come into the gate of this school, you leave your culture, you leave your language behind, and if you speak the language you will be punished. It's a generation that are no longer with me, that deserve the kind of apology and acknwledgmenet, is that generation to pass on before there is any kind of acknowledgement of that injustice? Really?" Mr Samuels says.
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