John Robertson
There was a time – not long ago – when physical education meant just that: education about the physical. Run. Jump. Stretch. Compete. Sweat. But now? Now your child is expected to murmur to the sky spirits before they throw a rugby ball. They’re learning to balance their wairua before they’re taught how to balance on one foot. Welcome to Te Ao Kori: where New Zealand’s gym class has been quietly hijacked by metaphysics.
And the parents? Still asleep. Still packing lunchboxes while blissfully unaware that what used to be PE is now a state-funded séance.
They didn’t call it religion: they called it culture. But let’s not be fooled. This isn’t about kapa haka or learning a game of ki-o-rahi for fun. This is about atua, tapu, mauri and wairua. This is spirituality and indoctrination, wrapped in the rainbow scarf of ‘biculturalism’ and hand-delivered to your child’s timetable without your knowledge – and without your consent.
Let me say it plainly: Te Ao Kori is a worldview, not a workout. It is soaked in the spiritual framework of Māori cosmology. That framework includes gods, spirits, life forces, sacredness and supernatural law. You might be OK with that and that’s fine. But were you even asked?
No, you weren’t, because they didn’t call it religion – they called it biculturalism. And that word, that Trojan horse of New Zealand law, is the smokescreen that lets this all happen.
You think biculturalism is about fairness, recognition and partnership? Wrong. In practice, it’s the policy gateway for spiritual beliefs to creep into secular institutions. It’s how metaphysics ends up on the curriculum, how prayers slip into morning meetings and how physical education becomes a soft sermon in movement.
And the state? They’re clapping, cheering and funding it.
Now imagine the backlash if this were Christianity. Picture a PE teacher asking your child to say a Hail Mary before swimming laps. You’d see protests, lawsuits and letters to parliament. But swap in Māori deities instead of Catholic ones and suddenly it’s not just allowed – it’s celebrated. No one wants to be the parent who questions ‘culture’.
But it isn’t culture: it is religion with a different accent.
And the real poison is that it’s being done through law. The word bicultural appears in our legislation, school policies and government departments. It is the legal entry point for race-based governance and spiritual insertion. It is why schools feel justified in wrapping PE in a layer of sacred ideology. It is why your child is learning metaphysical dualism instead of Newton’s laws.
Biculturalism is no longer a gesture of unity – it is a doctrine. A legally sanctioned and culturally shielded doctrine that creates different rights for different people and different rules for different beliefs. It is apartheid with better branding.
So what do we do? Strip the silence from your throat and speak up.
Because if we don’t push back now, it will grow: spiritual worldviews don’t just visit – they settle. They colonise. And before long, what was once a game of touch rugby becomes a ritual and our nation becomes a church with an HR department.
The Treaty didn’t mandate this. The children didn’t ask for it. And parents didn’t approve it.
Challenge every use of the word bicultural where it enables belief systems to slip past legal scrutiny. New Zealand needs more sense. It needs a secular education system where all beliefs are private – and public institutions remain neutral.
No more gods in gym class. No more rituals on the rugby field. No more sacredness between stretches.
Let them move. Let them breathe. Let them learn. But for the love of reason — stop praying before push-ups.
Their Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/share/p/16e1NX8iyx/
