Practicing Indigeneity: Lessons from a Māori-School Governance Partnership

Abstract

An account of an inner city ‘mainstream’ primary school, in Auckland, Aotearoa New Zealand, that is organized around a co-governance relationship based on the Treaty of Waitangi (1840). In this school, two forms of authority (Māori and Crown), and ways of constituting social and educational space are recognized and practiced. Because these governance arrangements position Māori autonomously and relationally, Māori are actively and creatively determining their own educational priorities and practices with significant success. This account can be read as a productive example of the possibilities for ethical and political practice, in a range of sites across our Indigenous worlds.