Symbol of National Unity or Cultural Division? New Zealand Adolescents Interpret Their Nation's Founding Document

• In Event: Critical Perspectives on Teaching Difficult History

Abstract

According to official discourses, the Treaty of Waitangi is the founding national document of New Zealand. Signed by the British Crown and several Maori (indigenous) chiefs in 1840, the Treaty is meant to represent the shared British-indigenous origins of the nation and the official bi-cultural status of contemporary society (King, 2013; O’Malley, Stirling, & Penetito, 2011; Orange, 2013). But to what extent do young people appropriate the national narrative about the nation’s bi-cultural heritage and contemporary nature? And how do young people’s ethnic identities influence their understandings of the Treaty specifically and of New Zealand history and contemporary society more broadly?

To begin to answer these questions, the presenter and a second researcher examined 300 survey responses and 10 focus group interviews related to students’ explanations of the significance of the Treaty. The survey responses represented those of 150 Pakeha (New Zealanders of European descent) and 150 Maori secondary students from high schools throughout New Zealand. Five of the focus groups took place in a majority Pakeha school; the other five took place in a majority Maori school. The researchers first separately coded student responses using inductive and deductive analytic themes (Merriam, 2009). We then met to resolve differences in coding (about 12% of the responses).

The findings demonstrated that Pakeha and Maori students occasionally reflected national discourses about the Treaty as a symbol of shared origins and/or contemporary biculturalism. Like official discourses, many Pakeha and Maori students attributed the Treaty with having established peace and a nation state between European settlers and Maori tribes. But unlike official discourses, Maori and Pakeha youth considered the Treaty to be of greater importance to Maori than to other New Zealanders. In addition, Maori youth were much more likely than Pakeha to view the Treaty as a source of conflict that still adversely affects Maori communities today.

In addition, Maori and Pakeha students saw little reason to celebrate “Waitangi Day”, a national holiday in New Zealand, and equivalent to Independence Day/Fourth of July in the United States. Pakeha youth saw it as a “day off from school”, with little or no contemporary meaning. Maori students on the other hand saw the day as a commemoration or time to remember their ancestors, rather than a celebration, noting that Waitangi Day is “when the European settlers stole our land.”

Although the New Zealand national curriculum requires that all New Zealanders learn about the role of the Treaty as a founding document that advances concepts of biculturalism (Ministry of Education, 2015), the study’s findings illustrate that lessons-- or at least learning-- about shared national origins and contemporary biculturalism are cursory at best. Rather than trying to instill in students “official” versions of the Treaty or the nation’s history in general, policy makers and teachers may consider starting with students’ concepts of the Treaty and examine these in light of the communities and commitments that different concepts of the Treaty’s significance uphold and/or upend.

Author

• Terrie Epstein, Hunter College - CUNY