Should Maori be required at school? – Brinkwire



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Across the street from a basketball court where young people are pushing hoops into the south of Auckland, Mariam Arif and her two younger sisters escape from the sky black and go through the sliding doors of Te Wānanga o Aotearoa to Māngere. Ms. Arif is scheduled to visit the area for her two hour total immersion class in Maori reo.

"Ko Mariam Arif tōku ingoa – nō te Rāwhiti Waenganui ahau, no te ao aripi", she proudly introduces herself. "Kei aroha to you ao Māori me ōna tikanga."

The 27-year-old man has been learning the Maori language for a year now and loves it. Maori culture reminds her of hers, she says, having moved to New Zealand from the Middle East 20 years ago.

She sees herself as an ardent advocate for Maori to become a compulsory subject in school. I have the impression of having missed the job of New Zealand, of having to pick it up as an adult … And because the language is married to the culture, you naturally understand a whole people by learning this language

"The fact that Maori are so misunderstood In many ways, people do not listen to their needs, mainly because no one has bothered to learn their language. "

Mrs. Arif said that learning Maori concepts has helped her to better understand current political issues. 19659002]" The whakapapa kaupapa is enough to make you understand why the maunga, the awa, the whenua is so important and why they anchor to all these things. "

" Once you understand this particular point, you are all immediately will fall All the political issues that people do not understand these days – say, the seabed, and things like at present Ihumātao in Māngere.

"People think that it's separate but that's not the case.If you do not understand the worldview of tangata whenua, you can not understand why they are fighting for things for which they are fighting. "

" If you make it compulsory in primary schools, you are literally raising a generation that will naturally understand all the things that their parents and grandparents have failed to do. understand. "

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Sitting on the other side of the class, the mental health officer Niira Te Moana practices his adverbs with small colored sticks – a common tool used in learning the Maori language.

"Kei kōnei te rākau karera, I kōna te rākau karera," he explained correctly to the class. (Here is the light green baton, the pale green baton was there.)

He wanted to speak his mother tongue all his life, but he said that he had been told in his childhood that he should take it on his

"My father and mother were not able to speak Maori because their parents had the language to speak Maori in school, so they did not

"I did a lot of kapa haka, you grow up, but I just missed that passion. Being high on the marae, I was surrounded by the tikanga side, but not encapsulating the reo. "

Mr. Te Moana indicated that you reo should be obligatory.He wants to see rangatahi flourish in any career using tikanga, te reo and doing what works for them. Maori

He has been attending classes for two years and says that he has been great for his wairua or soul.His friends and family, as well as his colleagues, also intend to use it more often, and some are eager to educate themselves, he says

"This pebble, you drop it in the pond and it spreads. I have the impression of doing something, not just for me but for the people.

But he not only claims more Maori Maori, but also a better understanding of the history of New Zealand.

There is a lot of history about how our lands were taken, there may be misfortunes around that – but it's about supporting each other, and what we can do now like a huge whānau. [Année19659002] Student Mireille Izabayo is so passionate about history studies that she took the time to share her reflections on nineteenth-century history in New Zealand [19659002] "This is not just what happened. "I think there's a lot more, a lot more, and injustice – and there's so much more that people do not know."

Miss Izabayo was born in the Democratic Republic of Congo and also lived in Kenya. She moved to New Zealand at the age of nine and said that she thought it was important to understand the country's past that she called her homeland.

"Many people regard New Zealand as a harmonious place where Maori and Pākehā live together. But there is an inequality between the two and all that goes back to the signing of the treaty.

"People have ignored this gap and it is the biggest problem we face, the fact that people ignore it.

She said that she had just become fully aware of the Treaty of Waitangi and how the founding document had shaped New Zealand.

Lauren Parker "smelled and narrated" to Northcote High the nineteenth century history of New Zealand. like her comrade Miss Izabayo, her passion for history in general forced her to sign up.

"There really is a feeling that it's boring – there's not enough history, it's not as exciting as European history. "

"I felt as though I had done the treat many times, but when I learned that this year, I realized how little I knew and how much my Insight was small. "

The subject is only offered to Year 13 students at the Auckland School ool. Despite the fact that she was not very attached to it, Miss Parker said that she felt responsible for knowing her own story – whether she wanted to pursue history as a career.

"That really took me away! I am so much more fascinated than I thought.

"I really feel like I see New Zealand differently now and the parts of the course we are preparing will probably be the ones that come out the most." Even more of the problems we face today.

"I have definitely noticed a difference of feeling in myself and in knowing so much more about my past."

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