Mere Skerrett

Dismantling Colonial Myths: Centralising Māori Language in Education

This chapter explores some discourses shaping colonial thinking in Aotearoa. Implicit in Deleuze and Guattari’s (2004) notions of deterritorialization is the restructuring of colonized space. Unmasking the power hierarchies (Cannella, 2011) of colonization serves to dismantle them. Alternative discourses speak to the conditions within which colonized peoples find themselves. It is argued that the re-generation of the Māori language in education is transformative. It repositions Māori knowledge/s at the core of curriculum. Transformative praxis (Freire, 1972) resists archaic teaching pedagogies, dismantles fixed truths, challenges knowledge monopolies, and troubles the hierarchical power structures that disadvantage indigenous children. Exposing the harmful effects of ‘linguafaction’ (a toxic byproduct of colonization) through discourse analysis strengthens the counter-colonial efforts of Māori language education in the early years.

Countering the dominance of a global north in early childhood education through an Indigenous lens in the global south

This article challenges the global coloniality of the doctrine of domination that re-presents itself in Aotearoa/New Zealand as an uneven ‘partnership’ between Māori (the Indigenes) and the colonizer (the British). That domination is maintained through the western positivistic one-size-fits-all ‘global north’ policies and practices in a colonial education system which is hegemonic and racist. The work of Kōhanga Reo (Indigenous language nests) in the early year’s education stream means a continuous flow of productive unsettlement, in order to survive, in order to dismantle the hegemonic structures and in order to transform Indigenous children’s lives. Through the southern lens of a ‘counter-global coloniality’, some of the historical antecedents of the doctrine of ‘civilization’ and philosophical underpinnings of Kōhanga Reo are sketched in terms of their ability to transform pedagogies of oppression and neoliberal futures. It is argued that Indigenous knowledge and languages can mediate the power relations of colonial dominance and Indigenous subordination, because they provide the keys to unlock and liberate the spaces, places and minds of coloniality.

Crown Breaches, Neoliberal Reforms, and Radical Pedagogy

This chapter overviews bilingual/immersion education, Crown breaches and offers a radical pedagogy through Māori immersion early childhood care and education (ECCE). It asserts that in order for the Māori language to be a working living language in communities across Aotearoa then it needs to be fully incorporated into the education system. It presents an extended analysis of recent and relevant Waitangi Tribunal Reports demonstrating how the Crown and its administration (the Ministry of Education) has reneged on its fiduciary responsibilities and duties under the Treaty of Waitangi through its policies and procedures. This has led to a weakened Māori immersion ECCE infrastructure and decreasing options for Māori parents and children. It is an imperative that the Māori language supports in ECCE are strengthened.

Policy and Inhibiters of Bicultural/Bilingual Advancement

This chapter frames the context in which Kaupapa Māori education, particularly that of Te Kōhanga Reo (bilingual/immersion early years language nests), has emerged. It commences with an exploration of some of the socio-historical legal and political developments defining the context of Māori education broadly, and bilingual/immersion early childhood care and education (ECCE) specifically. It provides an analysis of policy documents, principally the first early childhood strategy Pathways to the Future (Ministry of Education, 2002). It asserts that this strategy was designed to shape the direction of both Kaupapa Māori ECCE and the whitestream sector, but that it was more about coercing the Māori medium sector back into the mainframe of whitestream provision. It also emphasizes the long-lasting effects of colonialism on Māori societies and culture, the intergenerational disruption of knowledge transmission, and the devastating effects on Māori language loss. Māori language education is in crisis.

Te Timatanga: Introduction and Overview

The milieu of early childhood care and education in Aotearoa New Zealand is acknowledged internationally for several reasons. One aspect that is unusual within the international context is the recognition given to the Indigenous Māori within the New Zealand early childhood curriculum, “Te Whāriki: He whāriki mātauranga mō ngā mokopuna o Aotearoa” (New Zealand Ministry of Education, 1996), along with a stated commitment to Te Tiriti o Waitangi/The Treaty of Waitangi of 1840, a founding document of the nation (Ritchie & Rau, 2006). Secondly, Te Whāriki has been recognized for its sociocultural and integrated nature (Nuttall, 2003; Ritchie & Buzzelli, 2012). Thirdly, the document has at its heart a set of principles that focus on the centrality of relationships within early childhood care and education; the empowerment of young children and their families; recognizing the ecologies of families and communities; and the holistic way that young children learn. This book seeks to demonstrate some of the contributions and dilemmas that have arisen in the field of early childhood care and education in Aotearoa New Zealand in relation to these aspects (Skerrett, 2001, 2003, 2010, 2013; Ritchie, 2003, 2012).

Liberatory Praxis: Conclusions

Part A of this book foregrounds some of the inherent racist underpinnings of colonization entrenched in the New Zealand consciousness; that consciousness which feeds the racist colonial thinking and narrative that is played out daily through the institutions, throughout the country’s media, and in early years’ education settings and schools. It is manifest in unequal power relations. No more apparent is this than in the interactions between (colonial-minded) monolingual English-speaking teachers and Indigenous children in their respective education contexts. That our current education system is inherently racist has been well-documented over the intervening years since it was established under the Education Ordinance, 1847, and, it is argued here, reeks of linguafaction: the process by which indigenous languages are wrestled away from indigenous peoples, and from their landscapes. Linguafaction is the language/land disconnect that makes territorialized space unsafe for Indigenous people and their languages (see Chapter 1). The discourse analysis of Chapter 1 is designed to unsettle settler historiographies in Aotearoa/New Zealand, dehegemonize the system, and challenge the one-sided partnerships that developed through the Courts as they undermined the founding documents that allowed for British settlement: the 1835 Declaration of Independence and the 1840 Treaty of Waitangi.