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School boards are accountable for the performance of their school and student achievement. This includes making decisions that support Māori learners to enjoy and achieve education success as Māori. Congratulations to the New Zealand School Trustees Association for their new publication and resources to support trustees in their efforts to implement Te Tiriti o Waitangi. The resources include i) Te Tiriti and school governance information booklet, ii) board activities and inquiry scenarios and iii) video clips offering inspirational stories of school and community change. The governance booklet focusses on supporting boards moving from rhetoric to practices which are evidence-based and culturally responsive. It provides support to embed Te Tiriti o Waitangi into strategic planning, explores honourable kāwanatanga (governance) and provides up-to-date evidence on Māori students’ achievement. For the busy board member, the clips share powerful stories of how different schools have been p...

If our future is one where Te Tiriti o Waitangi is honoured, it makes sense to teach our children a critical history of Aotearoa New Zealand. In order to do this we need curriculum and resources for teachers to embed this thinking throughout our primary, intermediate and secondary education system. Tasmin Hanly, a senior Pākehā educationalist who has twenty-five years teaching experience, is currently developing a robust curriculum to support anti-racism education. Tasmin works part-time lecturing at the Auckland University Education Department and has been part-time writing the curriculum. In order to fund this project she has mortgaged her house, but needs us to give a little to make her dream come true. Tāmaki Tiriti Workers have meet with her and reviewed the draft documents and fully support this undertaking. The curriculum consists of six unit booklets that make a box-set for education centres to purchase, copy, do professional development, read, plan and teach from. The content...

This week the Human Rights Commission launched their new  human rights plan . Its current focus is: how human rights issues are managed within the policy and law making processes New Zealand’s growing diversity and its impacts on our society and race relations issues raised in respect of inequalities and discrimination in New Zealand tackling violence and abuse in New Zealand. Oops... we seemed to have missed the consultation process! We wish HRC well in co-ordinating government, business and civil society to implement their plan.  

Recently the contributors of Treaty Blog received an email regarding a new educational resource. Called "Alternatives to anti-Maori themes in news media", it is a media booklet created and shared by The Treaty Resource Centre. It is available both online and, by request, in hard copy. " The news media are not neutral or objective. Studies   show that the news repeats and reinforces negative themes about Māori that date from the earliest days of colonisation." There are thirteen themes presented, flowing from " Pākehā as the norm" to "Ignorance and Insensivity" and " Māori success". It reveals the negative attitudes that prevail in our current climate and offers alternative actions and statements that can be used to counter these themes.    The Treaty Resource Centre says "These negative themes present Māori interests and what Māori do as problems, or as being on the margins. They also help make Pākehā control over institutions, re...

An independent report on Stage One of the Ngapuhi claims regarding the Declaration of Independence and Te Tiriti o Waitangi is nearing sales of 2000 hard copies.  The report presents  previously unpublished Maori evidence about the intentions of rangatira for the Treaty agreement and He Wakaputanga, known as the Declaration of Independence (1835).  First published in 2012, Ngapuhi Speaks has this week been released as an e-book on New Zealand site  meBooks.co.nz .   The 400-page report by an independent panel of Maori and Pakeha academics has been steadily selling while Ngapuhi still awaits a report from the Waitangi Tribunal itself on the claim, WAI1040.

Commitment to a Treaty-based Multicultural New Zealand Te Tiriti o Waitangi is often been mistakenly considered to only be relevant to Māori and to Pākehā New Zealanders whose ancestors have been in New Zealand for some time. Te Tiriti however established the terms and conditions of all non-Māori settlement so therefore is relevant to all New Zealanders.     Network Waitangi ōtautahi has been working with the Federation of Multicultural Councils as they have developed a new resource about their commitment to a Treaty-based multicultural future. This new resource is shared so that others can develop their own statements. The resource is available on both the Federation of Multicultural Councils and Network Waitangi ōtautahi websites.   Network Waitangi ōtautahi has particular emphasis on encouraging those who do not have Māori ancestry to understand the Treaty of Waitangi.