Why this will to power? Why this urge to dominate? Why this desire to disacknowledge? Why this impulse to reduce? Why this assertion of preeminence? Why this refusal to listen? Why this retreat into stereotype? Why this insistence on individualism? Why this hunger to silence? Why this preying on ignorance? Why this longing to be the one, the only one, to push aside, to marginalise, to define, to talk, to frame, to be the only one with the authority to say what is acceptable and valid and worthy and right.

In the hīkoi on Tuesday we walked shoulder-to-shoulder, we sang, we talked, we gathered at Parliament and listened. We were there for one reason: te Tiriti o Waitangi, and all the beauty and promise it holds. We were a broad church, united and determined to face down the forces that seek to split us asunder, to subsume us, to fully betray the promise that made Aotearoa New Zealand possible.

Seymour, and by extension this government, say this is about equality for all. But you cannot have equality without a commitment to see the other. Seymour, and by extension this government, continually refuse to see Māori, to listen to Māori, to partner with Māori. There is no equality without empathy, care, protection, without respecting the right of the other to be on their own terms. There is no equality without goodwill, honesty, partnership, without actively working to build trust. Seymour, and by extension this government, want the exclusive power to define the terms for equality, and accordingly they undermine the very concept they are hanging their position on, making it nothing more than cover for the reassertion and concentration of cultural, social, economic and political power.

Te Tiriti gave us the language to partner in a project for equality, if equality is the primary purpose for our society. But equality does not mean identical, or the same. Te Tiriti gave us the language we need to protect the individuality of all who live here, to facilitate the fruitful partnership of different peoples so they were free to pursue a good life on their own terms, with mutual obligations. But since its signing, that language has been twisted, ignored. The actions of the Crown since the signing of te Tiriti are akin to the pursuit of sameness, and for a long time we celebrated it, holding up the assimilationist project as a success because it gave us ‘the best race relations in the world’. The last 50 years, with the development of the Treaty principles and their legislative inclusion, have signalled the beginning of an attempt to correct that historical breach of the Treaty.

The Waitangi Tribunal says this about what the Treaty means today:

Living Side by Side
The Treaty of Waitangi is the founding document of our country.

Maori agreed:

·       to let other people live in their country; and

·       to let the British make rules about behaviour and see that everyone obeys them.

The British agreed:

·       to let Māori keep control of their own lives; and

·       that Māori would have the same rights as all other people in Aotearoa.

The tribunal says that this agreement is underpinned by two values: respect and trust.

Respect 

Respect means that you treat other people with consideration. Respect does not mean that you have to be the same, like the same foods, or enjoy the same activities.

The Treaty was a contract of respect between the British and Māori. Today, there are a lot of people living here whose families are not from Britain. The Treaty now means there must be respect between Māori and non-Māori.

It is important that the laws and rules today consider and respect both Māori and non-Māori ways of living. It is important that Māori and non-Māori who live near each other are considerate of each other and respect each other’s differences.

Trust
A contract will work only if both groups who sign it trust that the other group will do what the contract says they will do.

The Māori who signed the Treaty trusted that the British would make laws that would be good for both them and the settlers. Unfortunately, as we have seen from what happened in Taranaki, the laws were often good for the Government and for the settlers, but not for Māori.

Despite what Seymour claims, te Tiriti o Waitangi protects us all because it sets out ways in which we can all expect to be treated equally: with respect, with consideration, with control over our own lives. These are noble ideas because they protect us from forces that seek to impose sameness in the pursuit of domination.

But now, te Tiriti has been erased from our new curriculum and as a board priority in the proposed changes to the Education Act. The protections given by the Treaty are gone. Without them, the small sect of curriculum designers are free to assume students to be identical and frame them as brains mindlessly, predictively, normatively adhering to the principles of the science of learning; the proposed changes to the Education Act position them as nothing more than subservient outputters of colonial indicators of achievement. And so, the education changes are an explicit reactivation of that broader historical wrong. They intentionally limit the scope for children to be seen beyond the lens of the priorities of the powerful — they amount to an erasure of the individuality of children, mirroring the experience of Māori since the signing of te Tiriti. This is Seymour’s vision, and the Treaty Principles Bill is his attempt to move it beyond the school gates and apply it across our nation.

It belongs in classrooms. It helps kids understand who they are in a way that is deep and profound. It gives them a secure footing in this place by anchoring them in a rich, if unfulfilled, promise of partnership and all the care, respect and hope that entails. Erica wants to rob our kids of that.

— Bevan Holloway (@bevanholloway.com) 2024-11-20T20:49:27.121Z

In framing this ‘debate’ under the idea of equality, Seymour is also seeking to define it in his, and his donor’s, interests. That is not a noble, mature idea. It is a recipe for tyranny. Māori have felt it for generations, and now it’s coming for all of us. The curriculum changes mean our children are going to feel its force first.

Are you prepared to make that trade?

Are you willing to play along, placated by the lure of better looking graphs in two areas of the curriculum?