Ngā Hanganga Matua o te Whakaako Hītori: Critiquing the Aotearoa New Zealand Histories Curriculum Reset

• In Event: Indigenous Perspectives on Knowledge that Colonialism Tries to Forget and Indigenous Peoples Seek to Remember

Abstract

In 2019, the New Zealand government announced plans for a national history curriculum “reset” in all schools that promised to include more Māori and iwi (tribal) history content, compulsory teaching of Te Tiriti o Waitangi (The Treaty of Waitangi) and the nineteenth century invasion Wars, and to address more thoroughly the country’s colonial past. In 2023 a new Government formed as a coalition of three right wing Parties announced they would “restore balance” to the curriculum, in other words they would rewrite the mostly rewritten curriculum. This paper considers some of the initial issues and key concerns found in a closer critical examination of both new curricula over the past three years. The presenters will draw upon their recent project “Ngā Hanganga o te Whakaako Hītori”, that examined Māori history concepts and pedagogies. We will discuss Māori history concepts, appropriate pedagogies, the politics of “citizenship” and “diversity”, navigating the colonial mess of Social Studies, the co-opting and continued “capture” of Māori terms, and the gatekeeping still evident in today’s process as a new right-wing government seeks to “restore balance” to the curriculum.

Authors

• Nēpia Mahuika, Massey University

• Richard Francis Manning, University of Canterbury