February 09, 2022
Kura Kaupapa claim against education history
Māori medium educators are heading for the Waitangi Tribunal to force the crown to face up to what they say are its treaty obligations.
Te Rūnanganui o Ngā Kura Kaupapa chair Rawiri Wright says since the first kura started more than 30 years ago successive governments have failed to properly resource and staff them.
There has been nothing done to develop resources for those who want to follow a Māori rather than Pākehā curriculum, and kura kids have succeeded despite the government, not because of it.
He says it’s about more than te reo Māori.
“It’s about ngākau Māori, mauri Māori, mana Māori, all those sorts of things that were deliberately trampled and deliberately taken from us when the education system was established in this country,” Mr Wright says.