July 14, 2021
Don’t be a coloniser, prof tells reo learners
A leading bicultural educator says Pākehā need to learn humility if they want to learn te reo Māori.
Professor Alison Jones from Te Puna Wānanga, the school of Māori and indigenous education at Auckland University, shared her observations in a recent E-Tangata article.
She says the point was brought home at a Te Ataarangi wānanga where she noticed how Pākehā students dominated the class, leaping forward to answer questions and show their new-found fluency.
She says sometimes people need to sit back and look at themselves.
"Pākehā, with our ancestry, we're very good at colonising, we're very good at taking things on with enthusiasm and doing them to the exclusion of others. Part of the whole process is learning humility, learning to listen and just be present and to learn rather than diving up the front with your hand up and starting to tell other people what's right and wrong and how to do it," she says.
Professor Jones says it’s good more Pākehā are learning about things Māori, but they need to do it from position of learning to be a better Pākehā, not to be more Māori.
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