Treaty journey for all

I read an article in the Education Gazette February 2020 by Avondale College teacher Clementine Fraser who shared some insight into how to make the Treaty of Waitangi come alive in learning programmes.

For the last 12 years former PPTA field officer, Andrew Barron and I, have been presenting Treaty workshops to secondary school teachers, principals and board of trustee members in secondary schools across the motu.

We have always worked with people in the school environment who have had a varied knowledge of the Treaty and who have had a desire to share that knowledge across their curriculum faculties or departments. The Treaty focus has been about "feeding the knowledge base of the teacher" knowing that the students would eventually reap the benefit of the teachers' knowledge, in the  classroom.

How we engage with Te Tiriti determines how students will

The Fraser article brought me to the understanding that how we engage with Te Tiriti, determines how the students will engage with it. Fraser goes on to say that the key to teaching it successfully is understanding why Te  Tiriti is important and why we should be enthusiastic to include it in our learning programmes:

• It is the founding document of our nation- albeit an imperfect and broken one;
• It is a living document – the promises bound in it are still in action (or should be) today;
• It has shaped our history and therefore our national and personal identities, in a multitude of ways;
• It is nearly unique in imperial histories of the 19^th century; and
• "The way society (and schools) discuss or value Te Tiriti reflects the way society values the place of Māori" (Fraser, 2020).

New Ti Tiriti workshop presenters

I would like to introduce two new presenters to support the delivery of the Treaty in secondary schools on behalf of PPTA. PPTA field officer for Bay of Plenty and Western Bay of Plenty, Jason Smythe and PPTA field officer for Counties Manukau and Central Plateau, Kathleen West, who have accepted the challenge of presenting with myself as Te Mataroa for the rest of 2020 and all of 2021.

I stated in many of the workshops that we will endeavour to provide a professional and personal journey of conversations about the Treaty and attempt to fulfil the key elements that Clementine Fraser articulated in her article about Te Tiriti ō Waitangi.

We are looking forward to receiving many applications for the Te Tiriti workshop from those secondary schools who have not had the opportunity to do so. Please make contact with the Hamilton PPTA office, Jude Sparrow at 07 849 0168 or Bill Anderson at banderson@ppta.org.nz

Get your request in early as we work on first in first served!