This is in line with the meaning of the word ‘colonisation’. It comes from the root word ‘colon’ meaning ‘to digest’. Hence colonisation is the desire by ‘the one’ to digest and extract as much as possible the resources, energies, knowledge and gifts from the many faces.

We can’t leave education to chance: I am hearing that so often now. It is an argument for uniformity and strict adherence to structure. This, they proclaim, is the path to salvation, to liberation.

But it is the language of the tyrant, not the liberator. For the emphasis is on the uni in formity, as imposed by ‘the one’ who knows all. And that uni is designed to form all in their interests.

The italicisation of the ‘i’ in the word colonisation reflects how many people in the local communities have opted to become ‘the one’, transforming themselves as a ‘gigantic I’ (Bruni, 2012, 59) at the expense of the ‘we’

And so plurality is disavowed. The one is elevated and given preeminence. This is the world as a narrow, exclusive funnel created for the benefit of ‘the one’. It is a world that is fragile and impoverished, in that it is purposeful in what it does not see.

The education changes being pushed through are not only non-evidence based, they represent a threat to freedom and our collective sense of self. Let us stand against those who want to colonise our kids by forcing them to be one thing.

(Quotes taken from ‘Tino Theology’ by Upolu Lumā Vaai, p. 236, published in The Relational Self: Decolonising Personhood in the Pacific)