Compulsory Teaching of New Zealand's Maori and Colonial History: February 5, 2019

Too few New Zealanders have a sound understanding of what brought the Crown and Māori together in the 1840 Treaty, or of how the relationship played out over the following decades. That’s what the New Zealand History Teachers' Association think. They’ve launched a petition calling for the House of Representatives to pass legislation that would make compulsory the coherent teaching of our own past across appropriate year levels in our schools. Stewart Sowman-Lund spoke with the Assocation’s Chair, Graeme Ball, and started by asking him to explain his petition.