"As cows grazed sleepily in a nearby paddock, then-14-year-old Leah Bell watched as a local Maori elder cried. She was standing at the site of the massacre at Rangiaowhia, where Maori were deliberately burnt to death by the British crown in 1864. The site was just down the road from her Waikato high school. But she had never heard about it; in history, they'd been learning about the American civil war."
"That shameful realisation led Bell and her classmates to organise a 13,000 strong petition to parliament in 2015, as part of a groundswell of young people pushed for the teaching of accurate New Zealand history, including the wars over land, in schools. This was made compulsory in 2023. Now, the government wants to rewrite the history curriculum, removing and revising Maori history content and cutting some Maori words and references to the country's foundational document, the Treaty of Waitangi (Te Tiriti o Waitangi)"
Leah Bell discovered that a nearby Waikato massacre where Māori were burnt to death in 1864 had been omitted from her school history, prompting a 13,000-signature petition in 2015 for accurate New Zealand history teaching. The national history curriculum was made compulsory in 2023. The government now proposes rewriting the curriculum for students aged 5–14 to remove and revise Māori history content, cut some Māori words, and reduce references to the Treaty of Waitangi. Supporters claim a shift to a discipline-driven approach will raise achievement and rebalance the curriculum. Teachers, principals, academics, over 200 schools and Māori communities argue the reforms erase Māori knowledge, reintroduce outdated methods and threaten language and culture.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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