Ssshhh…while you were sleeping the academic elves were hard at work preparing entry-level indoctrination material for our Level 4 (10-14-year-old) curriculum.
Yes: we have a brand new ‘School Journal’ titled ‘Ti Tiriti O Waitangi’, released, or set loose, on our kids just eighteen months ago. It’s a comic book; literally and figuratively.
Suffice it to say, as you have already probably guessed, its bent is unmistakably left, full of distortions and without competing context to the many complex issues in play surrounding the document and its aftermath. While some of the content’s text is implicit (wink, wink, nudge, nudge), the ‘teaching’ guide is explicit in some of the pure falsehoods our kids will be expected to regurgitate. Just one tiny example:
Would that be “He Whakaputanga o te Rangatiratanga o Nu Tirene: the Declaration of Independence of the United Tribes of New Zealand” they’re talking about, do you think? Perhaps our teachers might explain why such a formidable document doesn’t mention ‘Aotearoa’ at all, anywhere; such noun is null, void, in the hallowed text. Strange eh?
Never mind: the comic completes with a handy timeline of ‘important’ dates which clearly illustrates [pun intended] the lefty-bent book’s politics. Of the timeline, apparently only three dates are significant in the last forty-five years: 1975 – The establishment of the Waitangi Tribunal, 1989 – The first settlement brought under the 1975 legislation concerning the Waitomo Caves, and one other thing, just one momentous event. Can you guess what it is?
Ye of weakened constitution avert your eyes or reach for the sick bucket, you have been warned. The single significant event to be taught our children of 21st-century Treaty of Waitangi history is:
Good grief; that’s utterly ridiculous. Pure propaganda. Unbelievable. Phooey.
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