May 12, 2021
Manawatu Council schooled on treaty education challenge
A Massey University politics lecturer says Māori don’t have time to wait for councils to educate non-Māori voters about why Māori seats are needed.
Veronica Tawhai and her tamariki took part in yesterday’s hikoi in Feilding against Manawatū District Council’s decision to hold off creating Māori wards until at least the 2025 election.
Ms Tawhai, whose PhD research is on the role of citizenship education in transforming indigenous-coloniser relations, says the council’s excuses don’t wash.
"The time that it's going to take to educate non-Māori Aotearoa in terms of – this is Aotearoa, there is tangata whenua here, Māori, because of Te Tiriti o Waitangi that means specific obligations, specific responsibilities, and that Māori have a specific authority as tangata whenua in this country – so when they say they need time to educate, they have completely misread the situation," she says.
Ms Tawhai says the council also says Maori won’t be ready for next year’s election, but yesterday’s hikoi showed Maori are more than ready to take their place at the table.
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