LEARNING AND LIVING HISTORY

By Polly Nichols

The Ministry of Education expects all schools and kura to teach Aotearoa New Zealand’s histories starting in 2022. While the national curriculum is still being finalised, the Ministry also encourages schools to develop curriculum which encapsulates their own local histories and community.

Some kuras already make a point of teaching their students local histories like Te Wharekura o Arowhenua, one of the few Māori immersion schools in the South Island.

Principals Today talks with Te Wharekura o Arowhenua principal Gary Davis about the Aotearoa New Zealand’s national histories curriculum and how history plays a role at his kura.

What’s your opinion on the Aotearoa New Zealand’s national histories curriculum and what it should include?

We need to know our history so that we know how to move forward around some of the issues that we do have.

Māori history, because we are an immersion school, is very important to us. Our local history is from here. Also, the coming together of two cultures, Māori and Pākeha [should be included], and I think it’s important also to acknowledge the arrival of other nationalities to New Zealand and how that shaped us and is going to shape us in the future.

How does your school teach students about local history and what do you think students gain from it?

We followed the stories of my [Māori] ancestors that were here from the beginning. We follow their stories. We follow the legends. The stories that formed this land for us.

We also look at those encounters between the different iwi that happened down here. We look at the joining of those iwi and we acknowledge that all the time and the way that we do things like powhiri, in the way that we talk about how we got here. We acknowledge also the coming of many iwi from the North Island and their settlement here.

A lot came down to run our freezing works, to run our shearing sheds. Now we have the third and fourth generations of those families living here in Southland. But it’s also very important for us to know where [the students are] from and who they are.

The kura and three other schools taking part in The Science Wānanga. Image kindly supplied by Murihiku Marae and Waihōpai Rūnaka.

We have a goal that at least every student here will visit their maunga, their awa, where they’re from, their marae so that they have that connection still with their people, with their iwi.

We have to acknowledge the history of not only the pre-European but the post-European and the effects that has had on our area of Murihiku, Southland. Also acknowledging the arrival of many other ethnicities and diversity of our province now.

What significance does history, local or national, have in your school’s day-to-day activities?

Because we are an immersion school, we follow tikanga Māori. We use those stories when we have powhiri, we use those histories that acknowledge [the histories are] from here when we do go through those formal processes that we have here at this kura. When we travel, we take those stories and histories with us to acknowledge who we are, where we’re from. If you’re looking at day-to-day things, we really try to localise curriculum with our environment. Our environment holds the stories of what happened in those areas and to those people; what people were there, what ancestors and what they did. At the moment we have a curriculum that we are trying to form around a place called Waituna down here which is a wetland area that we’re being a part of trying to revive, bring back to a healthy state. Again, the history around that area has become a part of our curriculum.

Considering the fact that your school is a Māori medium school, how do you think language and history prepare your students for education after they leave kura?

Our ethos says that te reo Māori will be our first language. After that we will also ensure that our students have a good grasp of English or any other language that we may teach here so that our students are able to walk in both worlds confidently and are able to communicate in both worlds confidently. That’s a very important thing for us – to ensure that our students have that skill set to do that. They can go to a marae in the morning and be able to competently and confidently communicate there and then go to a formal English occasion where English is the main language and be just as confident in that setting. I would hope that they leave here with a really good sense of knowing who they are. We all have a whakapapa that is Māori and whakapapa that is Pākehā. It’s acknowledging both of those sides. But because we are very much an island when it comes to te reo within our province here, there are not many speakers. We have to fight very hard to ensure that we are able to keep te reo Māori alive within our community. We fight hard to ensure that we are able to do what we do.

What would you change if you were the Minister of Education?

I’d like to see the Ministry of Education follow the model that has been set One of Te Wharekura O Arowhenua’s aspirations is to have each student visit their marae at least once so that they’re connected with their whenua, awa and past. Principal Gary Davis says that practically every iwi in New Zealand is represented in his school so sometimes this aspiration is a real challenge. Gary recalls a time his kura competed in the national kapa haka for secondary schools. The competition was held in Gisborne and one of his students in the competition had never visited her marae in person which was just 40 minutes away from where the competition was held. Making the most of the opportunity, whānau members took her to her marae. Gary says, “Although the kapa haka was important, her being able to touch whenua, touch the land of where her ancestors were from, was something that brought her to tears. Just a great thing we can do that’s awesome”.

by the Ministry of Health. I think it’s well in time as a treaty partner that we have our own education authority that sits side by side with the Ministry of Education – to be able to run the likes of Māori immersion and to ensure that there are extra significant changes for Māori and all sectors of education.