The call for New Zealand schools to uphold Te Tiriti o Waitangi, despite recent legislative changes, is gaining momentum, with 1,084 schools writing letters of support and a social media campaign drawing widespread attention.
The list, labelled “Te Rarangi Rangatira”, was created by lawyer Tania Waikato following amendments to the Education and Training Act 2020 that would remove the requirement for School Boards to give effect to Te Tiriti o Waitangi, which passed its third reading two weeks ago.
Waikato has since received hundreds of statements and letters addressed to Education Minister Erica Stanford, outlining school boards’ objections to the change. Waikato says the schools had reached out first.
“In the beginning, I didn’t actually intend to make a list at all. It came about very organically. I had a few schools who saw my video about the repeal of the section, and they sent me their names and their letters, which confirmed that they were going to continue to give effect to Te Tiriti o Waitangi,” says Waikato.
Erica Stanford was approached by Te Ao Māori News for comment on whether the growing support would prompt the government to reconsider the changes.
“I don’t have any idea how many schools there are who are going to continue to honour the treaty, but that’s up to them. I’ve laid down a challenge — make sure that you’re raising student achievement for tamariki Māori, make sure you are being culturally competent, and make sure that you are teaching the language,” says Stanford.
ACT leader David Seymour posted on Facebook last week, stating that he was aware of the schools but alleged they were small in number, numbering fewer than 200. However, with around 2,500 schools in New Zealand, the 1,084 that have written letters of support represent more than 40 percent of all schools nationwide.
Waikato says Seymour’s comments were insulting.
“David Seymour might need to go back to school and learn how to do maths a bit better... some of the schools that we have on this list are extremely large,” says Waikato.
Among those listed were Cashmere High School, Auckland Girls’ Grammar and Wellington College, each with a student count between 1,000 and 2,400 students.
“What matters is that these are schools who are saying very clearly to this government that we will continue to give effect to Te Tiriti o Waitangi, because we do know it’s our founding constitutional document,” says Waikato.
Principal Andrea Jamieson from Auckland’s Waterlea Primary School, one of the schools whose board has chosen to commit to Te Tiriti o Waitangi, says most of their students are Pākehā, but they couldn’t imagine another outcome.
“It’s such a positive thing to be doing. I can’t imagine being the leader of a kura without this being the foundation”.
Board member and parent Chris Porteous says the community was at the forefront of the decision.
“We had a few families who had written to the board just expressing their real concern,” says Porteous.
“It was a no-brainer; the board was completely united that, actually, we needed to do something about this and add our voices to what had already been done”.
Tania Waikato says the online list will be open for more schools to be added for the foreseeable future.
