1972: Te Reo Maori Claim

September 11, 2019

By AHNZ

In the 1870s Maoris petitioned The State to compulsorily ban their language from schools. They had come to detest it and made repeated efforts to get rid of it.

In the 1970s Maoris petitioned The State to compulsorily insert their language into schools. The ‘Te Reo Maori Claim’ asserted that the Maori language was actually one of those treasures/taongas referred to in The Treaty of Waitangi.

“In 1972 the influential group, Ngā Tamatoa, collected this petition of over 30,000 signatures. It called for the government to offer Māori language in schools, as a gift from Māori to Pākehā. It was an important public act which included the delivery of the petition to Parliament on 14 September 1972.” – Archives New Zealand

Tell that to your 1870s counterparts who were far closer to the coalface of what was or was not considered a taonga in 1840 than a bunch of seventies stoners blaring Bob Marley.¹

The history of The State is repetitive and hilarious isn’t it?

Of course only one of the above events will be recorded in Statist history books. And only one of these sets of petitions will be cherished as taonga while the other will be swept quietly under the rug.

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1 I acknowledge that saying this is to stereotype ’70s Maoris at ‘Bro Town’ cartoon levels. If that upsets you then throw the first stone at Oscar Kightley

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