Te Tiriti o Waitangi

The Treaty of Waitangi was signed in 1840 and was an agreement between the British Crown and a large number of Māori chiefs.

Today the Treaty is widely accepted to be a constitutional document that establishes and guides the relationship between the Crown in New Zealand (embodied by our government) and Māori.

The Treaty created a commitment to protect Māori culture and to enable Māori to continue to live in New Zealand as Māori. At the same time, the Treaty gave the Crown the right to govern New Zealand and to represent the interests of all New Zealanders.

In 1988, the Royal Commission on Social Policy suggested three principles relevant to education that came from the treaty — partnership, participation and protection. These principles were developed further for educational purposes to provide high-level standards, guide treaty partners (teachers/children/family) on communicating with each other, and understand the treaty as a whole — a commitment towards bicultural curriculum and development.

Detail of the entrance gate to the Waitangi Regional Park, New Zealand.

The three principles of the Treaty of Waitangi are at the heart of the relationship between the government and Māori. The principles come from the defining ideas of the Treaty and are used to bridge the gap between Māori and English texts, which can be interpreted differently due to language differences.

The three principles, also known as the three "P's", are Partnership, Participation and Protection.

Partnership principle

Partnership in this case means working together with iwi, hapū, whānau, and Māori communities to develop strategies for Māori education.

Partnership encourages and requires Māori to be involved at all levels of the education sector, including decision-making, planning, and curriculum development.

Partnership is:

• engaging with Māori community
• respecting sacred customs
• inquiry- and place-based learning — finding out about the Māori origins of your rōhe, mountains, rivers, history
• having Māori representatives on boards of trustees
• equity for Māori
• power-sharing.

The partnership relies on us welcoming and having genuine relationships with our Māori community. Historically, there have been Māori families that have not felt welcomed in schools. With an aim to reduce those incidences, the Ministry of Education is becoming a better partner. The result is that we are all working towards providing our children with a strong, meaningful curriculum taught in a respectful bicultural environment, representing the interests of all families who call Aotearoa, New Zealand, our home. 

Sometimes these relationships take time and effort. For most communities, once they feel there is genuine relationship building, they will be more than happy to be a part of the school and add expertise.

Participation principle

Schools in New Zealand include Kapa Haka in their curriculum and children from all different cultures living within Aotearoa enjoy participation. The kapa haka group pictured here performed at Kapahaka Rocks 2004, in Wellington, and is a combination of three schools from Ōtaki – Te Wharekura o Te Rito, Whakatupuranga Rua Mano and Ōtaki College.

As educators, we have a responsibility to emphasise positive Māori involvement at all levels of education. This is clearly expressed in National Education Goal (NEG) 9, which states that “Increased participation and success by Māori through the advancement of Māori educational initiatives, including education in Te Reo Māori, consistent with the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi.”

Participation is:

• working to strengthen home-school relationships
• Māori participating in school decision making
• school environment reflecting the biculturalism of Aotearoa
• aspirations of Māori whānau reflected in school planning
• equity for Māori.

If you begin working on strong partnerships, participation will happen naturally. Often, as soon as your whānau and community see that you genuinely want to move forward with Māori participation, people step forward to help. Coming from a place of honesty and wanting to make a difference for the ākonga puts you in a perfect space to be treaty partners. Māori participants are an asset to our school communities.

Protection principle

Protection means actively protecting Māori knowledge, interests, values, and other taonga. Identity, language, and culture are important expressions of what that looks like. It's important to establish that 'culture counts' and commit to knowing, respecting, and valuing where students are, where they come from, and build on what they bring with them.

Protection is:

• valuing, validating, and protecting local knowledge (place-based learning)
• normalising Te Reo Māori
• learning and including Tikanga school-wide
• equity for Māori.

As classroom teachers, we are able to implement these principles every day. Normalising Te Reo needs to happen not only in your classroom, but in staff meetings, the staff room, on duty, in assemblies, and other areas.

Adding a Māori perspective to topics and inquiry is an opportunity for us to weave tikanga and Māori viewpoints into everyday situations.

The three Ps from Te Tiriti o Waitangi already shape the policies and practices in the ECE space.

The principles of partnership, participation, and protection lead to practices. This section highlights the behaviours, rules, and customs we practice in order to protect our partnership. 

Partnership practices

Partnerships rely on each player seeking a genuine understanding of each other's principles and values, and building relationships based on respect and trust. These women were performing in a Kapa Haka festival. 

Within ECE centres, these relationships flourish when people make the effort to get the conversation started and keep it going. Our partnership starts with our Māori community, but it represents the idea that all customs deserve respect in our centres and services. Once someone feels a person is truly working to build a relationship, they will be more than happy to connect and bring valuable insight and wisdom to the conversations.

Creating a practice around people's culture and customs is a genuine way to build trustful relationships. 

Participation practices

Participation in an ECE setting means getting involved. That can be in a group to accomplish a goal, or as a korero (discussion) with a sharing of ideas and wisdom, or independently strengthening your own skills, and learning something new to enhance your work.

If you begin building strong partnerships, participation will happen naturally. Presenting yourself as honest and genuinely wanting to make a difference for the ākonga (student) is the best way to become treaty partners with your colleagues, the tamariki and their parents, and the community as a whole.

Protection practices

Protection means actively protecting Māori knowledge, interests, values, and other taonga. Identity, language, and culture are important expressions of culture. Protection is valuing, validating, and protecting local knowledge. The Māori carving depicted in this image would have been of a real person or deity, which is unfortunately to us, unknown. 

Learning activities that you can do with tamariki today:

• Practice Te Reo Māori
• use it in class
  • simple words (kupu), such as:
    • kia ora (informal - hello)
    • tena koe (formal - hello)
    • ka kite (goodbye)
• To ensure that Te Reo and Tikanga Māori are maintained, create posters, sing waiata, talk about the myths and legends.
• Māori words to start using regularly today. (Hint: use them in your assessments)
  • tamariki – children
  • e noho – sit down
  • e tu – stand up
  • aroha – love
  • whānau – family
  • mōrena – good morning
  • koha – a gift
  • kai - food
  • ka pai - good job
  • ka kite ano - see you later
  • kaiako - teacher
  • whaea - word for female teacher, ie "whaea Sophie"
  • matua - parent(s), male teacher

This is just the beginning. Visit and bookmark kidspot.co.nz for more words and tips. A great way to learn Te Reo is to choose one or two words per week that are new to you and use them instead of the words in your own language.

This is for everyone, not just for ECE. In most places of employment throughout Aotearoa, NZ you are now encouraged to korero mai Te Reo Māori.

Kawa and Tikanga Māori

One of the ways many New Zealand schools show the protection principle is by observing certain Māori customs or behaviours, called Tikanga. Tikanga Māori are practices, rituals, rules, and ways of doing things that are done because of the belief system, Kawa.

The terms are more different than like. Kawa provides the logic, thoughts, beliefs, and values, while Tikanga describes the actions used to uphold the Kawa. The Māori word, Tikanga, is made from ‘tika’ which means ‘right’ or ‘correct’ so, in Māori terms, to act in accordance with Tikanga is to behave in a way that is culturally proper or appropriate. 

It is described this way by Tūtira Mai - a website that helps people learn more about Maori language and customs.

The principles behind the Tikanga Māori practices we're showing here are common across New Zealand. However, different iwi (tribes), hapū (sub tribes) and marae (Māori meeting places) may describe each slightly differently. One of the ways your centre can practice the protection principle is to incorporate and establish Tikanga Maori and learn Kawa. 

The information on the following activity cards was gathered from the Victoria University of Wellington.