Every year New Zealand celebrates The Treaty, but how well do we as teachers help our young people understand it more deeply? As a teacher how are you planning to help your students with this? I remember vividly my fifth form social studies teacher announced to the class, “Oh, we’ll leave The Treaty this year because it is too hard to teach.” How many teachers feel this way and place The Treaty in the ‘too hard basket’? My advice to teachers would be to start small and give it go; after all our children deserve to learn about New Zealand’s past.

As a starting point, learning to say your students’ and local place names correctly is important as it acknowledges and values their mana, prestige and who they are.

Find out about the personal stories of the young people in your class, from their families’ experiences. When you are ready, make contact with your local community by finding out about the histories of the area.