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New Zealand Proposed a New Curriculum Teaching Maori and Colonial History

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by Eben Diskin Feb 4, 2021

New Zealand is taking steps to ensure that its children are well-educated about the country’s history of British colonization and the indigenous Maori people.

Reuters reported that on Wednesday, the government proposed a national curriculum covering these topics that all teachers must follow. The curriculum is planned to be introduced next year.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said, “Let us teach it, let us learn it and let us remember it. Let us share our history with every student in every school…”

The proposed curriculum would cover the arrival of the Maori to New Zealand, early colonial history, immigration and colonization of New Zealand, and the Treaty of Waitangi, which was signed by the British and Maori chiefs in 1840 and has shaped the relationship between the Maori and non-indigenous people in New Zealand ever since.

The proposal comes just in time for Waitangi Day on Saturday, February 6.

The Maori compose around 15 percent of New Zealand’s population. During the country’s colonization by Britain, the Maori had their land stolen and suffered atrocities often not mentioned in history classes.

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