The beginning of kura kaupapa Māori: Indigenous schooling in Aotearoa, New Zealand

Abstract

Kura kaupapa Māori are a unique New Zealand primary school education system in which children are immersed in a Māori language and cultural environment with the aim of enabling graduates to ‘live as Māori’ within the wider world. This presentation provides a background of the events that led to the establishment of kura kaupapa Māori in New Zealand. Interviews with founding members from the first Auckland kura kaupapa Māori give a critical sense of the hopes and aspirations that guided them in their struggle to set up the kura kaupapa Māori initiative. The desire to provide suitable schooling for their children, who had been educated in a pre-school Māori immersion environment, led the pioneers on a two year political and legal battle to preserve Māori language and culture and to provide a Māori education that validates traditional Māori knowledge and pedagogy. Narratives from the key figures in kura kaupapa Māori movement provide information about the hardship they and their families endured in the setting up of kura kaupapa Māori without government assistance, as well as clarification about the political strategies they employed in the pursuit of the legalisation of kura. The restructuring of New Zealand’s Education Department opened a space for the development of kura kaupapa Māori, leading to legislation in 1989 and formal recognition in 1999 of the Te Aho Matua document, the guiding philosophy for the majority of kura today. The New Zealand case offers a lot to those considering how to engage in structural educational change. This paper will interest all those who work or study in indigenous education, and particularly those curious about the complex and often demanding political strategies required for the establishment of a state-funded school system for indigenous populations. Key words: Māori immersion education, kura kaupapa Māori, Te Aho Matua