On 31 July Newsroom released an opinion piece from Dr. Amanda Thomas of Victoria University of Wellington, entitled Beyond Pākehā paralysis (Thomas, 2024). She tells us that as the fires of white fear are stoked daily, it’s time for Pākehā to gather courage and start work on decolonization. Dr. Thomas states that just as there is a set of people who are angry and fearful of Te Tiriti and Māori, there are many more who understand the importance of Te Tiriti and the promise that it holds for a country based on justice.
Her article mentions a book of which she was a co-author - Imagining Decolonisation (Elkington et al., 2020). I have read this book and found parts of it enlightening, informing us of genuine hurt and trauma for Māori in undergoing colonization because there was a degree of greed and brutality on the part of some settlers towards Māori. Indeed, there is much that New Zealanders can learn from this book in relation to the lived experiences of Māori and other minorities. On the other hand, the book focuses exclusively on the negatives of colonization, sometimes sailing very close to victimhood, glosses over the less pleasant aspects of indigenous societies, including inter-tribal warfare and cannibalism, and calls for radical reforms of institutions such as justice and education when it is not clear that such reforms would work towards the common good.
Among other claims, the authors of that book assert that our justice system treats Māori unfavorably and is in need of overhaul. Possibly this is so and we have heard such claims in our media many times. However, a comprehensive study is required if we are to assess objectively the truth or otherwise of racism or systemic bias within our justice institutions, taking account of factors such as recidivist offending.
Decolonising Education
On page 59 of the book we read that a revitalized decolonized education system might seek to recover plurality or “different ways of knowing”. Decolonized education would go hand in hand with kaupapa Māori as a response to colonialism. We are told that such efforts continue to grow in early childhood, primary, secondary, tertiary and adult education.
We understand the rationale behind kaupapa Māori and believe that it has potential to benefit Māori students. However, one researcher informs me that four decades of ideology-driven kaupapa Māori schooling have not improved the performance of Māori children in disadvantaged communities, except possibly the children of the growing Māori professional class.
On page 64 we read that a truly decolonised Aotearoa will involve transformation of European systems and frameworks that are the deep institutions of colonialism. Perhaps dialogue about such transformations is necessary, but it is not clear how much change is sought or that reconfigured institutions will operate in the interests of all New Zealanders more so than at present.
What is deeply concerning is the extent to which this ideology is believed by those in education and uncritically repeated in mainstream media (Rata, 2022).
We share with Professor Rata a concern that decolonisation is a key strategy of an ethno-nationalism agenda, where political categories that are based on racial classification will be inserted into New Zealand’s institutions. In education the universal, secular system set up by the 1877 Education Act could be replaced by a radically different system, based on two racial categories – one ethnic and cultural group and then all others.
Building Relationships
In the Beyond Pākehā paralysis article, Dr. Thomas has declared a point of view. We respect her right to hold and voice that point of view and we admire her courage in speaking out for what she believes in. She reminds us that in New Zealand we have disparities in the present, especially in relation to health and wellbeing, in education and socioeconomically. Probably, a few people here and there are indeed angry and fearful of Te Tiriti and Māori. However, what about those who are neither angry nor fearful, but instead want a New Zealand that is truly democratic and where no single community enjoys special economic or political status because of ancestry?
So, this is it. It is time to move through Pākehā paralysis. The call has been issued. Take the deep breath and gather your courage.
Build and embrace good Tiriti relationships that will sustain us and exist well beyond the contemporary moment.
Certainly, her call to action is provocative and, we believe, motivated genuinely for the good of Māori. Undoubtedly, building and embracing positive relationships is most desirable, but should we not aspire to build relationships across all communities rather than with one only?
Dr. Thomas has provided an opinion piece rather than a research study, but our challenge to Dr. Thomas is to provide evidence. Where is the evidence that Pākehā are paralysed? It is quite possible that they are paralysed in large numbers, but we need to see the hard data and compelling anecdotal evidence. And where is the evidence that particular interpretations of the Treaty of Waitangi, if implemented, will enable a more just New Zealand than at present?
Listen to Māori leadership, while acknowledging that there is no singular Māori experience or perspective. If you get things wrong, be ready to be called to account. View that as an act of generosity and an investment in your Te Tiriti relationship.
There is a beautiful, flourishing Aotearoa New Zealand ahead. It can be characterised by democracy and politics that are specific to this place, where we are held in relation to each other and this whenua through Te Tiriti. Ahead of us, the fires of white fear are quelled and the ahi kā burn brightly and warmly. But it’s going to take some work. Let’s go, Pākehā.
A personal reaction to such sentiments is that we must work together as a unified nation towards equality of opportunity for all and towards positive outcomes for everyone. But our drive to a better future must be inclusive of every community and take account of each and every person, irrespective of ethnicity, religion, cultural affiliation, country of origin or economic status. Focusing almost exclusively on the advancement of one single ethnic and cultural group is morally and politically misguided and does injustice to the many people who do not share common ancestry with those first settlers of, and migrants to, New Zealand. Further, characterizing those who hold dissenting views from our own as angry or fearful is not a constructive line of debate and will not win over the hearts and minds of those who are represented in those terms.
Do all this with grace and humility (there is little energy for white saviourism). Build relationships with Māori not because you need their help but because that is Te Tiriti brought to life.
Our response is that we must build relationships across all populations. And - let us hope that indeed the ahi kā burn brightly and warmly. However, recent proclamations from activists such as Rawiri Waititi, Debbie Anne Ngarewa-Packer and Mariameno Kapa-Kingi provide little assurance that a New Zealand under the Treaty will be a happy place for all. At a time when we need consensus and conciliation, we are witnessing instead the establishment of protected domains, adversarial attitudes and highly aggressive opposition.
Imagining Decolonisation
A prior article from Dr. Thomas dates to 2020 – Imagining decolonisation in Aotearoa (Thomas, 2020). Here we are asked what decolonisation means and how the concept inspires Māori and Pākehā New Zealanders' vision for Aotearoa. She believes that colonisation has led to a very unequal society across pretty much every measure and that the inequality that derives from colonisation is bad for everyone.
Indeed, colonization appears to have given rise to disparities and, while much Māori land was purchased lawfully, there was also deceit and some very shameful theft of land. That is why we have the Waitangi Tribunal. Surely, inter-generational trauma is real. However, did not colonization also bring about rule of law, improved health and wellbeing, education and enhanced prosperity for everyone? Today we see relatively low levels of serious crime, no warfare or famine, a relatively strong health system, education of reasonable quality, despite issues in recent years, and in general a great place to live and bring up children.
Today, Māori fare poorly in education and various initiatives have been introduced in order to lift that performance. However, in nearly every measure of health and wellbeing and of socioeconomics, it is not Māori but instead Pacific people generally who face the greatest challenges (Lillis, 2023).
It is a very easy and convenient recourse to ascribe disparities in the present to systemic bias, but this is not to assert that bias, unconscious or otherwise, absolutely does not exist. Systemic bias may be real in particular environments and in forms where the majority does not experience or perceive it. However, statistical analysis of disparities in educational performance suggest that by far the strongest causes of those disparities have to do with socioeconomic disadvantage, including low family incomes, household overcrowding, unhealthy homes and chronic lack of those resources that otherwise would support education. For example, Marie et al. (2008) confirmed that it was mainly socioeconomic deprivation that accounted for the low performance of Māori in education. As a former quantitative researcher in education, I have confirmed independently the truth of this finding.
Addressing Disparities
Similarly, disparities in health have to do mainly with the social determinants of health, or those non-medical factors that influence health across populations. They comprise the conditions in which people are born, grow, work, live and age, and additionally the wider set of forces and systems that shape the conditions of daily life (World Health Organization, 2024). These forces and systems include economic policies and frameworks, development agendas, social norms, social policies and political systems. They include the following determinants: Income and Social Protection, Education, Unemployment and Job Insecurity, Working Life Conditions, Food Insecurity, Housing, Basic Amenities and the Environment, Early childhood Development, Social Inclusion and Non-discrimination, Structural Conflict and Access to affordable health services of decent quality. Rather than assert systemic bias as a major cause of disparity, perhaps it would be more productive to focus on those social determinants that influence both education and health for all citizens.
In New Zealand today we see many initiatives that are designed to assist Māori, including various financial assistance; scholarships and other education-related incentives; financial support to help Māori landowners to build housing; preferential admission to medical school; heavily Treaty-centric, matauranga Māori-based early childhood, primary and secondary education curricula; an increasingly Treaty-centric tertiary sector; a Treaty-centric and a bicultural public service, state funding of research partly on the basis of race and, of course, naming of government institutions in Te Reo.
We support some of these initiatives, though not in every detail, and certainly not those initiatives relating to education. However, within conversations concerning Te Tiriti we wish to see similar attention paid to enhancing the health and wellbeing and economic status of Pacific people and other individuals, families and communities in need.
A Weak Sense of Identity?
Dr. Thomas informs us that:
Ethnically, Pākehā have a very weak sense of identity. We don't know who we are . . . we know that we are not European, we're a bit different from Europeans. When we are here in Aotearoa New Zealand there is often a fragility about that and when we go overseas we make these claims to Māori culture. We're not sure who we are as Pākehā.
We cannot discount the possibility that Pākehā display a very weak sense of identity and do not know who they are. However, we are curious about the evidence for these assertions and we wish to see research studies or other evidence for such claims. On pages 84 to 86 of Imagining Decolonisation we read that Pākehā typically report weaker ethnic identity than minorities, that many Pākehā born in New Zealand are left with a feeling that they lack a sense of identity and that many are ill at ease with their cultural roots and traditions. Perhaps in certain research studies, on average Pākehā have reported lower levels in various measures of identity, but it is very difficult to evaluate such findings objectively.
Dr. Thomas says that it was less about diversity being the problem, but more about power and the way Māori and Pasifika experienced the justice and education system, as opposed to Pākehā. She submits that many of our systems are based entirely on a Pākehā way of seeing the world.
We agree that Māori and Pasifika experienced justice and education differently and sometimes in a negative manner. However, today New Zealand is a different place from the New Zealand of a century ago and many initiatives have been put in place to assist Māori and other minorities, including those designed specifically to lift performance in education.
Does New Zealand see the world in a Pākehā way? Perhaps so, but New Zealand is but one of many first world nations that share similar approaches in domains such as healthcare, justice, social welfare and education. Possibly it is more correct to say that New Zealand is a developed, industrialized nation that has adopted a twenty-first century, global way of life, and sees the world and interacts with it largely in those terms.
Decolonising Methodologies
Calls for decolonisation are not new. For example, Decolonizing Methodologies: Research and Indigenous Peoples is a very well-known book by Dr. Linda Tuhiwai Smith, first published in 1999. In the light of Dr. Smith’s position that only indigenous people can speak for themselves rather than be researched by others, we ask the following question. How does Dr. Smith, as an indigenous person and, by definition, not a Westerner unless she wishes to self-identify as such, feel qualified to research and speak about “Western” knowledge systems? Should we feel colonized by her implicit characterization of Westerners as ‘Other’?
It is by no means an exaggeration to say that New Zealand may be undergoing a form of colonization by traditional belief and value systems, especially within the spheres of education, science and innovation and the public service. Ironically, this “colonization”, if real, may emerge as a new species of political domination.
If decolonisation itself involves only the undoing of colonial rule over subordinate peoples, then we are supportive. However, the notion has assumed new meanings that appear to include the saturation of our national curriculum and our universities with traditional knowledge and funding of research on the basis of ethnicity.
As an example, at the University of Auckland students can take a course known as PUTAIAO 200: Mātauranga and Kaupapa Māori Science (University of Auckland, 2024). The Course Prescription states that Mātauranga Māori is central to the future practice of science in Aotearoa New Zealand and that the course explores foundational understandings of mātauranga Māori and Kaupapa Māori for scientists.
We support fully the ambition of educating our students about minority rights and indigenous world views, but should any form of traditional knowledge become central to the future practice of science? Certain elements of traditional knowledges do have some scientific basis and traditional knowledges have a significant part to play in preserving our environment, in public health and in sustainable management of our resources, for example. But to make them central to the practice of science is to greatly over-promise and serves no useful purpose. In any case, how will such courses be assessed if there is no clear understanding of quality in traditional research? Indeed, certain courses similar to the above are becoming compulsory. Is that situation fair on students and how will international students, who pay large fees to study in New Zealand, react?
Apparently, PUTAIAO 200 is not compulsory but it was supposed to be overseen by a board of studies that had been set up by the Dean. However, we are informed that the board was not provided with a detailed description of the course content, and that the pro-Vice Chancellor Māori disestablished the board, replacing it with a group of supporters.
At the University of Auckland a new Bachelor of Social Justice degree is on offer within the School of Critical Studies in Education. Within the matauranga Māori specialization of that degree, a course is on offer, entitled ‘Social Justice in Aotearoa’, which explores concepts and theories of social justice from a range of knowledge systems and disciplinary perspectives. It examines “histories of social (in)justice, power and privilege in Aotearoa in relation to Te Tiriti o Waitangi”. Other courses, such as ‘Structural (In)justice’ and 'Epistemological Justice - Indigenising STEM', are similar in design and intent.
We support the provision of such courses in our universities and believe that they could serve a genuine purpose, provided that they deliver balanced perspectives on the history, culture and sociology of New Zealand and are not used as vehicles for indoctrination.
Our Universities
Today, many university staff believe that our universities have lost focus on teaching and research - their core reason for being - and many fear that speaking up increases their chances of losing employment. This fear is very well-founded, as we have seen at Massey University in particular but, if academic staff fail to act because of this fear, then no progress will be made. Anecdotally, we hear that in many programmes, course leaders are required to exclude important content in order to accommodate "different ways of knowing". One academic has expressed the issue as follows:
Decolonisation has nothing to do with educating students. It is designed to achieve societal transformation, but at what cost? Don't we want Māori dentists, engineers, architects, scientists, etc? How is indoctrinating students about the evils of colonisation and teaching them about traditional knowledge going to improve life for New Zealanders?
Sometimes in our desire to bring about change, we become destroyers rather than creators. Our concern is that decolonisation represents a tearing down of "colonial" institutions without any clear vision of what will replace them. Originally, universities were largely Western institutions, but today minorities need them just as much as everyone else. Today, decolonisation has become a mix of French and American ideology and has taken the form of an anti-democratic political project. We need to call it out for what it is.
Concluding Remarks
Dr. Thomas has presented her views in good faith and in equal good faith I have presented views that happen to countermand those of Dr. Thomas. I suggest that, while undoubtedly well-meaning, Dr. Thomas engages in argument by assertion and has yet to provide supporting evidence. The idea seems to be that the problem for marginalized communities has to do with post-colonial identity, but how does this problem relate to higher education, for example?
Dr. Thomas has called on the Pākehā of New Zealand to engage in major transformations in mindset and attitude. Possibly her intention is that all other non-Māori are to engage similarly. Our response is that a change in mindset towards a more cohesive and caring society that is characterized by equal opportunity is to be encouraged. However, such transformations as may play out under Te Tiriti are to be accompanied by calls for consequential reconfigurations in domains such as secondary and tertiary education, healthcare and justice, and in how we conduct business and interact with other nations. For example, we have heard calls for traditional medicine to exist outside of health legislation such as the Therapeutic Products Bill, when overseas evidence shows that decolonization of medicine and pharmacology has led to numerous therapeutic accidents involving herbal products that were not validated following “colonial” standards (Parvez and Rishi, 2019). We question whether or not such reworking of society and its institutions would prove to be positive for the nation as a whole.
Perspectives such as those of Dr. Thomas have the potential to influence and just possibly any influence that they have will be for the greater good. However, in New Zealand today we are experiencing a very pervasive post-modern ideology that we believe is already damaging community relations and harming both education and science. Possibly, Dr. Thomas and others romanticize the notion of revolution and have not yet had the opportunity to consider deeply what our country will look like when the Te Tiriti “revolution” has arrived and played out. Thus, a response to the views of Dr. Thomas and others who hold similar views and who are active in attempting to realize those views is not only legitimate but obligatory, if only to present the countervailing perspective and support genuine bipartisan debate.
We are pro-minority and very supportive of disadvantaged groups in the sense of some degree of affirmative action and aiming for equality of opportunity, for example, but we stand against the kind of ethno-nationalist decolonisation ideology that was procured within the He Puapua report and that has become endemic across New Zealand.
Professor Elizabeth Rata, for one, believes that the tragedy of this decolonizing, racialised ideology is that it will destroy the foundations of New Zealand’s modern, prosperous society (Rata, 2022).
A revolution is coming. The government’s transformational policies for education make this clear. It will only be stopped by a re-commitment to academic knowledge for all New Zealand children, rich and poor alike, within a universal and secular education system. Colonisation is not the problem and decolonisation is not the solution (Rata, 2022).
We live in the here and now and we have a duty of care to all New Zealanders, especially to our young people. We must now consider the need to confront the decolonization movement, as opposed to remaining silent in the naïve hope that matters will self-correct. Unfortunately, we have now reached a point where we must make the strongest possible challenge to what is taking place, and critical to that challenge is to ensure the highest possible quality of education and science.
References
Elkington, Bianca; Jackson, Moana; Kiddle, Rebecca; Mercier, Ocean Ripeka; Ross, Mike; Smeaton, Jennie and Thomas, Amanda (2020). Imagining Decolonisation. ISBN: 9781988545783
https://www.bwb.co.nz/books/imagining-decolonisation/
Marie, D., Fergusson, D. M. and Boden, J. M. (2008). Educational achievement in Māori: The roles of cultural identity and social disadvantage. Australian Journal of Education, 52(2): 183-196.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/258124006_Educational_Achievement_in_Maori_The_Roles_of_Cultural_Identity_and_Social_Disadvantage
Lillis, David (2023). Our Prioritised Health System and Pacific People
https://breakingviewsnz.blogspot.com/2023/01/david-lillis-our-prioritised-health.html
Rata, Elizabeth (2022). The Decolonisation of Education in New Zealand. The Democracy Project, 23 April 2022. Republished in The Australian, May 2023.
Parvez. M. K. and Rishi, V. HerbDrug Interactions and Hepatotoxicity. Curr. Drug Metab. 20: 275–82 (2019)
https://www.eurekaselect.com/article/97525
Thomas, Amanda (2020). Imagining decolonisation in Aotearoa
https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/saturday/audio/2018749550/imagining-decolonisation-in-aotearoa
Thomas, Amanda (2024). Beyond Pākehā paralysis
https://newsroom.co.nz/2024/07/31/beyond-pakeha-paralysis/
University of Auckland (2024). PUTAIAO 200: Mātauranga and Kaupapa Māori Science
https://courseoutline.auckland.ac.nz/dco/course/PUTAIAO/200/1245
World Health Organization (2024). Social determinants of health
https://www.who.int/health-topics/social-determinants-of-health#tab=tab_1
Dr David Lillis trained in physics and mathematics at Victoria University and Curtin University in Perth, working as a teacher, researcher, statistician and lecturer for most of his career. He has published many articles and scientific papers, as well as a book on graphing and statistics.
Among other claims, the authors of that book assert that our justice system treats Māori unfavorably and is in need of overhaul. Possibly this is so and we have heard such claims in our media many times. However, a comprehensive study is required if we are to assess objectively the truth or otherwise of racism or systemic bias within our justice institutions, taking account of factors such as recidivist offending.
Decolonising Education
On page 59 of the book we read that a revitalized decolonized education system might seek to recover plurality or “different ways of knowing”. Decolonized education would go hand in hand with kaupapa Māori as a response to colonialism. We are told that such efforts continue to grow in early childhood, primary, secondary, tertiary and adult education.
We understand the rationale behind kaupapa Māori and believe that it has potential to benefit Māori students. However, one researcher informs me that four decades of ideology-driven kaupapa Māori schooling have not improved the performance of Māori children in disadvantaged communities, except possibly the children of the growing Māori professional class.
On page 64 we read that a truly decolonised Aotearoa will involve transformation of European systems and frameworks that are the deep institutions of colonialism. Perhaps dialogue about such transformations is necessary, but it is not clear how much change is sought or that reconfigured institutions will operate in the interests of all New Zealanders more so than at present.
What is deeply concerning is the extent to which this ideology is believed by those in education and uncritically repeated in mainstream media (Rata, 2022).
We share with Professor Rata a concern that decolonisation is a key strategy of an ethno-nationalism agenda, where political categories that are based on racial classification will be inserted into New Zealand’s institutions. In education the universal, secular system set up by the 1877 Education Act could be replaced by a radically different system, based on two racial categories – one ethnic and cultural group and then all others.
Building Relationships
In the Beyond Pākehā paralysis article, Dr. Thomas has declared a point of view. We respect her right to hold and voice that point of view and we admire her courage in speaking out for what she believes in. She reminds us that in New Zealand we have disparities in the present, especially in relation to health and wellbeing, in education and socioeconomically. Probably, a few people here and there are indeed angry and fearful of Te Tiriti and Māori. However, what about those who are neither angry nor fearful, but instead want a New Zealand that is truly democratic and where no single community enjoys special economic or political status because of ancestry?
So, this is it. It is time to move through Pākehā paralysis. The call has been issued. Take the deep breath and gather your courage.
Build and embrace good Tiriti relationships that will sustain us and exist well beyond the contemporary moment.
Certainly, her call to action is provocative and, we believe, motivated genuinely for the good of Māori. Undoubtedly, building and embracing positive relationships is most desirable, but should we not aspire to build relationships across all communities rather than with one only?
Dr. Thomas has provided an opinion piece rather than a research study, but our challenge to Dr. Thomas is to provide evidence. Where is the evidence that Pākehā are paralysed? It is quite possible that they are paralysed in large numbers, but we need to see the hard data and compelling anecdotal evidence. And where is the evidence that particular interpretations of the Treaty of Waitangi, if implemented, will enable a more just New Zealand than at present?
Listen to Māori leadership, while acknowledging that there is no singular Māori experience or perspective. If you get things wrong, be ready to be called to account. View that as an act of generosity and an investment in your Te Tiriti relationship.
There is a beautiful, flourishing Aotearoa New Zealand ahead. It can be characterised by democracy and politics that are specific to this place, where we are held in relation to each other and this whenua through Te Tiriti. Ahead of us, the fires of white fear are quelled and the ahi kā burn brightly and warmly. But it’s going to take some work. Let’s go, Pākehā.
A personal reaction to such sentiments is that we must work together as a unified nation towards equality of opportunity for all and towards positive outcomes for everyone. But our drive to a better future must be inclusive of every community and take account of each and every person, irrespective of ethnicity, religion, cultural affiliation, country of origin or economic status. Focusing almost exclusively on the advancement of one single ethnic and cultural group is morally and politically misguided and does injustice to the many people who do not share common ancestry with those first settlers of, and migrants to, New Zealand. Further, characterizing those who hold dissenting views from our own as angry or fearful is not a constructive line of debate and will not win over the hearts and minds of those who are represented in those terms.
Do all this with grace and humility (there is little energy for white saviourism). Build relationships with Māori not because you need their help but because that is Te Tiriti brought to life.
Our response is that we must build relationships across all populations. And - let us hope that indeed the ahi kā burn brightly and warmly. However, recent proclamations from activists such as Rawiri Waititi, Debbie Anne Ngarewa-Packer and Mariameno Kapa-Kingi provide little assurance that a New Zealand under the Treaty will be a happy place for all. At a time when we need consensus and conciliation, we are witnessing instead the establishment of protected domains, adversarial attitudes and highly aggressive opposition.
Imagining Decolonisation
A prior article from Dr. Thomas dates to 2020 – Imagining decolonisation in Aotearoa (Thomas, 2020). Here we are asked what decolonisation means and how the concept inspires Māori and Pākehā New Zealanders' vision for Aotearoa. She believes that colonisation has led to a very unequal society across pretty much every measure and that the inequality that derives from colonisation is bad for everyone.
Indeed, colonization appears to have given rise to disparities and, while much Māori land was purchased lawfully, there was also deceit and some very shameful theft of land. That is why we have the Waitangi Tribunal. Surely, inter-generational trauma is real. However, did not colonization also bring about rule of law, improved health and wellbeing, education and enhanced prosperity for everyone? Today we see relatively low levels of serious crime, no warfare or famine, a relatively strong health system, education of reasonable quality, despite issues in recent years, and in general a great place to live and bring up children.
Today, Māori fare poorly in education and various initiatives have been introduced in order to lift that performance. However, in nearly every measure of health and wellbeing and of socioeconomics, it is not Māori but instead Pacific people generally who face the greatest challenges (Lillis, 2023).
It is a very easy and convenient recourse to ascribe disparities in the present to systemic bias, but this is not to assert that bias, unconscious or otherwise, absolutely does not exist. Systemic bias may be real in particular environments and in forms where the majority does not experience or perceive it. However, statistical analysis of disparities in educational performance suggest that by far the strongest causes of those disparities have to do with socioeconomic disadvantage, including low family incomes, household overcrowding, unhealthy homes and chronic lack of those resources that otherwise would support education. For example, Marie et al. (2008) confirmed that it was mainly socioeconomic deprivation that accounted for the low performance of Māori in education. As a former quantitative researcher in education, I have confirmed independently the truth of this finding.
Addressing Disparities
Similarly, disparities in health have to do mainly with the social determinants of health, or those non-medical factors that influence health across populations. They comprise the conditions in which people are born, grow, work, live and age, and additionally the wider set of forces and systems that shape the conditions of daily life (World Health Organization, 2024). These forces and systems include economic policies and frameworks, development agendas, social norms, social policies and political systems. They include the following determinants: Income and Social Protection, Education, Unemployment and Job Insecurity, Working Life Conditions, Food Insecurity, Housing, Basic Amenities and the Environment, Early childhood Development, Social Inclusion and Non-discrimination, Structural Conflict and Access to affordable health services of decent quality. Rather than assert systemic bias as a major cause of disparity, perhaps it would be more productive to focus on those social determinants that influence both education and health for all citizens.
In New Zealand today we see many initiatives that are designed to assist Māori, including various financial assistance; scholarships and other education-related incentives; financial support to help Māori landowners to build housing; preferential admission to medical school; heavily Treaty-centric, matauranga Māori-based early childhood, primary and secondary education curricula; an increasingly Treaty-centric tertiary sector; a Treaty-centric and a bicultural public service, state funding of research partly on the basis of race and, of course, naming of government institutions in Te Reo.
We support some of these initiatives, though not in every detail, and certainly not those initiatives relating to education. However, within conversations concerning Te Tiriti we wish to see similar attention paid to enhancing the health and wellbeing and economic status of Pacific people and other individuals, families and communities in need.
A Weak Sense of Identity?
Dr. Thomas informs us that:
Ethnically, Pākehā have a very weak sense of identity. We don't know who we are . . . we know that we are not European, we're a bit different from Europeans. When we are here in Aotearoa New Zealand there is often a fragility about that and when we go overseas we make these claims to Māori culture. We're not sure who we are as Pākehā.
We cannot discount the possibility that Pākehā display a very weak sense of identity and do not know who they are. However, we are curious about the evidence for these assertions and we wish to see research studies or other evidence for such claims. On pages 84 to 86 of Imagining Decolonisation we read that Pākehā typically report weaker ethnic identity than minorities, that many Pākehā born in New Zealand are left with a feeling that they lack a sense of identity and that many are ill at ease with their cultural roots and traditions. Perhaps in certain research studies, on average Pākehā have reported lower levels in various measures of identity, but it is very difficult to evaluate such findings objectively.
Dr. Thomas says that it was less about diversity being the problem, but more about power and the way Māori and Pasifika experienced the justice and education system, as opposed to Pākehā. She submits that many of our systems are based entirely on a Pākehā way of seeing the world.
We agree that Māori and Pasifika experienced justice and education differently and sometimes in a negative manner. However, today New Zealand is a different place from the New Zealand of a century ago and many initiatives have been put in place to assist Māori and other minorities, including those designed specifically to lift performance in education.
Does New Zealand see the world in a Pākehā way? Perhaps so, but New Zealand is but one of many first world nations that share similar approaches in domains such as healthcare, justice, social welfare and education. Possibly it is more correct to say that New Zealand is a developed, industrialized nation that has adopted a twenty-first century, global way of life, and sees the world and interacts with it largely in those terms.
Decolonising Methodologies
Calls for decolonisation are not new. For example, Decolonizing Methodologies: Research and Indigenous Peoples is a very well-known book by Dr. Linda Tuhiwai Smith, first published in 1999. In the light of Dr. Smith’s position that only indigenous people can speak for themselves rather than be researched by others, we ask the following question. How does Dr. Smith, as an indigenous person and, by definition, not a Westerner unless she wishes to self-identify as such, feel qualified to research and speak about “Western” knowledge systems? Should we feel colonized by her implicit characterization of Westerners as ‘Other’?
It is by no means an exaggeration to say that New Zealand may be undergoing a form of colonization by traditional belief and value systems, especially within the spheres of education, science and innovation and the public service. Ironically, this “colonization”, if real, may emerge as a new species of political domination.
If decolonisation itself involves only the undoing of colonial rule over subordinate peoples, then we are supportive. However, the notion has assumed new meanings that appear to include the saturation of our national curriculum and our universities with traditional knowledge and funding of research on the basis of ethnicity.
As an example, at the University of Auckland students can take a course known as PUTAIAO 200: Mātauranga and Kaupapa Māori Science (University of Auckland, 2024). The Course Prescription states that Mātauranga Māori is central to the future practice of science in Aotearoa New Zealand and that the course explores foundational understandings of mātauranga Māori and Kaupapa Māori for scientists.
We support fully the ambition of educating our students about minority rights and indigenous world views, but should any form of traditional knowledge become central to the future practice of science? Certain elements of traditional knowledges do have some scientific basis and traditional knowledges have a significant part to play in preserving our environment, in public health and in sustainable management of our resources, for example. But to make them central to the practice of science is to greatly over-promise and serves no useful purpose. In any case, how will such courses be assessed if there is no clear understanding of quality in traditional research? Indeed, certain courses similar to the above are becoming compulsory. Is that situation fair on students and how will international students, who pay large fees to study in New Zealand, react?
Apparently, PUTAIAO 200 is not compulsory but it was supposed to be overseen by a board of studies that had been set up by the Dean. However, we are informed that the board was not provided with a detailed description of the course content, and that the pro-Vice Chancellor Māori disestablished the board, replacing it with a group of supporters.
At the University of Auckland a new Bachelor of Social Justice degree is on offer within the School of Critical Studies in Education. Within the matauranga Māori specialization of that degree, a course is on offer, entitled ‘Social Justice in Aotearoa’, which explores concepts and theories of social justice from a range of knowledge systems and disciplinary perspectives. It examines “histories of social (in)justice, power and privilege in Aotearoa in relation to Te Tiriti o Waitangi”. Other courses, such as ‘Structural (In)justice’ and 'Epistemological Justice - Indigenising STEM', are similar in design and intent.
We support the provision of such courses in our universities and believe that they could serve a genuine purpose, provided that they deliver balanced perspectives on the history, culture and sociology of New Zealand and are not used as vehicles for indoctrination.
Our Universities
Today, many university staff believe that our universities have lost focus on teaching and research - their core reason for being - and many fear that speaking up increases their chances of losing employment. This fear is very well-founded, as we have seen at Massey University in particular but, if academic staff fail to act because of this fear, then no progress will be made. Anecdotally, we hear that in many programmes, course leaders are required to exclude important content in order to accommodate "different ways of knowing". One academic has expressed the issue as follows:
Decolonisation has nothing to do with educating students. It is designed to achieve societal transformation, but at what cost? Don't we want Māori dentists, engineers, architects, scientists, etc? How is indoctrinating students about the evils of colonisation and teaching them about traditional knowledge going to improve life for New Zealanders?
Sometimes in our desire to bring about change, we become destroyers rather than creators. Our concern is that decolonisation represents a tearing down of "colonial" institutions without any clear vision of what will replace them. Originally, universities were largely Western institutions, but today minorities need them just as much as everyone else. Today, decolonisation has become a mix of French and American ideology and has taken the form of an anti-democratic political project. We need to call it out for what it is.
Concluding Remarks
Dr. Thomas has presented her views in good faith and in equal good faith I have presented views that happen to countermand those of Dr. Thomas. I suggest that, while undoubtedly well-meaning, Dr. Thomas engages in argument by assertion and has yet to provide supporting evidence. The idea seems to be that the problem for marginalized communities has to do with post-colonial identity, but how does this problem relate to higher education, for example?
Dr. Thomas has called on the Pākehā of New Zealand to engage in major transformations in mindset and attitude. Possibly her intention is that all other non-Māori are to engage similarly. Our response is that a change in mindset towards a more cohesive and caring society that is characterized by equal opportunity is to be encouraged. However, such transformations as may play out under Te Tiriti are to be accompanied by calls for consequential reconfigurations in domains such as secondary and tertiary education, healthcare and justice, and in how we conduct business and interact with other nations. For example, we have heard calls for traditional medicine to exist outside of health legislation such as the Therapeutic Products Bill, when overseas evidence shows that decolonization of medicine and pharmacology has led to numerous therapeutic accidents involving herbal products that were not validated following “colonial” standards (Parvez and Rishi, 2019). We question whether or not such reworking of society and its institutions would prove to be positive for the nation as a whole.
Perspectives such as those of Dr. Thomas have the potential to influence and just possibly any influence that they have will be for the greater good. However, in New Zealand today we are experiencing a very pervasive post-modern ideology that we believe is already damaging community relations and harming both education and science. Possibly, Dr. Thomas and others romanticize the notion of revolution and have not yet had the opportunity to consider deeply what our country will look like when the Te Tiriti “revolution” has arrived and played out. Thus, a response to the views of Dr. Thomas and others who hold similar views and who are active in attempting to realize those views is not only legitimate but obligatory, if only to present the countervailing perspective and support genuine bipartisan debate.
We are pro-minority and very supportive of disadvantaged groups in the sense of some degree of affirmative action and aiming for equality of opportunity, for example, but we stand against the kind of ethno-nationalist decolonisation ideology that was procured within the He Puapua report and that has become endemic across New Zealand.
Professor Elizabeth Rata, for one, believes that the tragedy of this decolonizing, racialised ideology is that it will destroy the foundations of New Zealand’s modern, prosperous society (Rata, 2022).
A revolution is coming. The government’s transformational policies for education make this clear. It will only be stopped by a re-commitment to academic knowledge for all New Zealand children, rich and poor alike, within a universal and secular education system. Colonisation is not the problem and decolonisation is not the solution (Rata, 2022).
We live in the here and now and we have a duty of care to all New Zealanders, especially to our young people. We must now consider the need to confront the decolonization movement, as opposed to remaining silent in the naïve hope that matters will self-correct. Unfortunately, we have now reached a point where we must make the strongest possible challenge to what is taking place, and critical to that challenge is to ensure the highest possible quality of education and science.
References
Elkington, Bianca; Jackson, Moana; Kiddle, Rebecca; Mercier, Ocean Ripeka; Ross, Mike; Smeaton, Jennie and Thomas, Amanda (2020). Imagining Decolonisation. ISBN: 9781988545783
https://www.bwb.co.nz/books/imagining-decolonisation/
Marie, D., Fergusson, D. M. and Boden, J. M. (2008). Educational achievement in Māori: The roles of cultural identity and social disadvantage. Australian Journal of Education, 52(2): 183-196.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/258124006_Educational_Achievement_in_Maori_The_Roles_of_Cultural_Identity_and_Social_Disadvantage
Lillis, David (2023). Our Prioritised Health System and Pacific People
https://breakingviewsnz.blogspot.com/2023/01/david-lillis-our-prioritised-health.html
Rata, Elizabeth (2022). The Decolonisation of Education in New Zealand. The Democracy Project, 23 April 2022. Republished in The Australian, May 2023.
Parvez. M. K. and Rishi, V. HerbDrug Interactions and Hepatotoxicity. Curr. Drug Metab. 20: 275–82 (2019)
https://www.eurekaselect.com/article/97525
Thomas, Amanda (2020). Imagining decolonisation in Aotearoa
https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/saturday/audio/2018749550/imagining-decolonisation-in-aotearoa
Thomas, Amanda (2024). Beyond Pākehā paralysis
https://newsroom.co.nz/2024/07/31/beyond-pakeha-paralysis/
University of Auckland (2024). PUTAIAO 200: Mātauranga and Kaupapa Māori Science
https://courseoutline.auckland.ac.nz/dco/course/PUTAIAO/200/1245
World Health Organization (2024). Social determinants of health
https://www.who.int/health-topics/social-determinants-of-health#tab=tab_1
Dr David Lillis trained in physics and mathematics at Victoria University and Curtin University in Perth, working as a teacher, researcher, statistician and lecturer for most of his career. He has published many articles and scientific papers, as well as a book on graphing and statistics.
22 comments:
Professor/Dr Thomas is entitled to her view = free speech.
But she appears to be a career example of the political crisis facing NZ's ideology -driven universities - i.e. embedding Critical Race theory / ideology before true scholarship.
She supports the "partnership" version of the Treaty. Perhaps her career depends on this view .
Prof/Dr Thomas does not support democracy - i.e. ask the NZ people if they want democracy or ethnocracy. This should have been done by Ms Ardern (BA) at the start of her heinous and Marxist reign. This question was never asked.
Ms Thomas must explain why this did not happen.
PS Hold 2 PhDs - top ranked unis .
Thank you Dr. Lillis, but Ms. Thomas can kiss my proverbial.
I am, for a start not and never have been a 'pakeha'. I am and always have been a New Zealander regardless I might add of my ethnic ancestry.
I also do not ' have a very weak sense of identity' because I know exactly where I am from both born and ancestrally.
This person makes bold sweeping BS statements with no researched evidence and thus like all other CRT neo-marxist activists should be ignored.
How does anyone turn back time to 'decolonise' anything without the removal of all the things that colonisation brought (good or bad)?
The answer is we cannot because to do so leads us back to Maori in 1641 pre Tasman's visit where infanticide, cannibalism, slavery, misogyny (which no one speaks of and still exists in maori culture), warfare, destruction of the natural environment (flora and fauna), a lack of ceramic/metal knowledge, no written language and an incredibly short life expectancy existed.
What we do, do is embrace the issues we have as a society and find a way forward in the development of all humans in New Zealand as best that, that can be done and not look back at a history littered with inequity, warfare and death as some sated answer.
Personal responsibility plays a major part in each individuals welfare and the very mention of:
'one researcher informs me that four decades of ideology-driven kaupapa Māori schooling have not improved the performance of Māori children in disadvantaged communities, except possibly the children of the growing Māori professional class.....'
.....proves that point by the fact that we have a growing professional class made up of maori, the very people Ms. Thomas makes out to be victims of colonialisation.
Ms. Thomas needs to find another planet to live on as the one she infests at the moment is clearly one where reality, truth and facts escape her.
As usual, well argued.
Let (social) justice be done though the heavens fall. I think we’ll get a whole of falling heavens, not much justice, with the the pipe dream of decolonisation and multiple ways of knowing as we are dragged backwards into the prescientific age.
…four decades of ideology-driven kaupapa Māori schooling have not improved the performance of Māori children in disadvantaged communities… yet still they continue. You are far too kind to these visionaries with their faith in a future utopia and qualitative studies riddled with theory and confirmation bias.
Dave Lenny
Maori must be the luckiest group on earth (what is a Maori?) .
Thomas is one of those who would like to be an elite in charge .Not a believer in democracy.
PS Degree in Common Sense.
Decolonisation my foot, Dr Amanda Thomas. Colonisation happened! - 200 years ago. After 4 centuries of isolation, and killing one another wholesale in a land which, though spacious, lacked much variety, Maori were very ready to avail themselves of the artifacts of the Northern hemisphere - as they are today - motorised and computerised like everyone else. Get real!
"Pākehā typically report weaker ethnic identity than minorities, that many Pākehā born in New Zealand are left with a feeling that they lack a sense of identity and that many are ill at ease with their cultural roots and traditions."
No, Not Correct. Actually, most "pakeha" (a word that I regard as being the equivalent of the N word) happily identify as being part of that great ethnic group called the Human Race.
Just follow the money. How many jobs in NZ are for self-identified Maori only (i.e. no-one else welcome)? No doubt thousands (and growing). How many jobs for white folks only? Let's say more or less none. More of Maori 'elitists' feathering their own nests with made-up BS.
Dr. Thomas is spouting pure Marxism. History warns us this ideology never turns out well but produces a totalitarian elite who destroy all that is good from the West like freedoms, wealth, welfare and justice for all.
Certainly we need to address the genuine evils of the West but they are common evils in all cultures -greed, bullying, tyranny. envy, laziness etc.
From my perspective as an educationalist I suggest a return to co ncentration on traditional Western values and teaching methods that work to achieve a sound education in the basic subjects for all. Maori do not have different intellectual functioning brains. neuro - science and cognitive science prove this.
This is not nostalgia for the past when we had a world class education system but a check with reality about what actually produces true social justice in education. Progressive education has never focused on the 3RS, but gradually over the years progressed closed and closer to Marxism . using colonisation as an excuse for its own failures rather than addressing its iniquitous teaching methods and destructive tenets like constructivism. ( child entered , teach yourself)
So a decolonised New Zealand would look like a New Zimbabwe?
Yes Anna. My contempt for Thomas knows no bounds.
Exactly !!
What is a Maori? Well now they are all "part pakeha" eh.
Perhaps some NZers lack a sense of identity. I don't! As a first generation Kiwi born in Auckland, I am a proud Anglo-Norman-Irish-Northumbrian on my father's side. Bog standard Southern English on Mum's
The whole concept around decolonisation is nonsense - one cannot undo history. And so is describing New Zealanders as Māori and others. We have a choice - be New Zealanders and look ahead, or keep on looking in the past and go into oblivion. Like somebody said - follow the money! If we happened to have investigative journalism that is- which we don’t.
David, your far to kind to these radical, delusional thinkers. This women has absolutely no concept of reality, typical of Marxist postmodernist thinking.The simple reality is, any reference to things Māori in our education system has NO value.
Infact its counter to any advancement and is designed to sabotage the future of New Zealand as a first world democracy. Decolonization has no meaning, its just another ridiculous construct, that only a lunatic born out of our completely corrupted learning institutions feel compelled to consider as a solution to an imagined victim hood mentality.
These people deserve zero credibility.
Standing at Sydney airport a while ago I was asked by a foreign traveller to our country why the departure board had New Zealand city names in English then in another language.
That's the native Maori's language I said. They enquired further, do many speak it ? Just a tiny percentage of the population I replied. Well why do you bother they asked ?
I thought for a while and all I could think to tell them was that the country has been overcome by a madness akin to the Salem Witch Trials.
Which is also as valid a reason as any as to why we seem to have changed the name of our country.
Perhaps a good place to start ending this madness is to demand that all taxpayer , ratepayer or government funded activities , and all government funded media organisations refer to our country and all place names by their common English language names first. Who was it that decided to start this process, were the voters or ratepayers asked ?
Dr Eric Cramptons article in this forum dated 16 April this year details how the Maori population as a whole fits neatly into the lower 6 income deciles that recieve more in Government services or welfare benefits than they pay in tax.
And Comrade Clark changed the tax legislation such that Maori business institutions can order their affairs such that they can avoid tax.
So what have they ever contributed to paying the bills ?
I am not asking them to beg, but at least they could thank the hand that feeds them.
A few years ago on RNZ, in accord with its policy of granting exaggerated time to matters maori, I heard a lengthy and of course supportive article about the new book "Imagining Decolonisation". I placed it on order at the library, and 689 down the list it eventually turned up. A batch of essays by all but one maori, all apparently studying or employed in maori related work. None claim to be full maori, all have colonialist surnames, but little mention of the colonialist blood and any abilities or guilt which came with it, or any reduced claim to separate decolonised rules. For readers who rationally question, the book is heavy going as glaring but unmentioned counter arguments swamp the brain at every turn.
Definitions of decolonisation vary: those from dictionaries do not fit at all. One given in the book is "colonisation is imposing their ideas on another group, taking away the things that make life possible and good, and that decolonisation is the process of removing those impositions." Quite ludicrous.
About the same time on one of the regular RNZ pander to maori programmes, a group of not glib pleb maori were quizzed about imagining colonisation. They had no concept they were able to describe.
Where do they find these twerps? This is pure & absolute lunacy dreamt up by idiots. A rational mind couldn't make this up. Yet another brain fart from the Loopy Left.
It is instructive to think about the following exercpt from the preface to the 1998 edition of "Higher Superstition", by Paul R. Gross and Norman Levitt:
"As for anti-science, that is a very old story in our culture. In its accustomed forms, it would hardly have stirred us to take the trouble to study and write about it. The writing of Higher Superstition was undertaken only when it became clear to us, from separate but remarkably similar experiences at our respective universities, that something new and unwelcome had found its way into the academic bloodstream and thence into lecture rooms, journals, books, and faculty chit-chat: the systematic disparagement of modern science. A public response was clearly needed. Even the silliest criticisms of science, dressed up as social analysis, hermeneutics, or emancipatory politics, were going largely unanswered. Neither scientists as individuals, nor scientific organizations, nor scholars within the disciplines whence issued the disparagement, showed any inclination (might it have been any courage?) to rebut the kinds of anti-scientific nonsense and flawed scholarship we were encountering in the academy.” (page ix, preface to the 1998 edition)
David Lillis
As New Zealand hasn't been a colony for over 110 years, in the context of our country at least "decolonisation" must be a code word for something else than it's literal meaning.
Considering the content of such "discourse", it appears to mean "reversion to premodern society", with the corollaries of antipathy to the Enlightenment, to the West, to democracy, to the inherent dignity of each person regardless of their "identity", and so on.
Most people are so enculturated with the benefits of a modern outlook and values, it is difficult to comprehend anyone arguing for tribalism, status accorded through genealogy instead of merit, ideas of the natural world accepted only through cultural transmission, reciprocity of utu, nepotism, etc.
I suppose there is an attraction of returning to a simpler society, especially if it's to one's personal advantage or that of your relatives.
LFC
The author like many others concedes that Maori were cheated in land deals - why do such authors never say that Maori also cheated at land sales? Sold land that they didn't own, kept the proceeds of land sales to themselves and failed to share them with other owners etc. Prior to 1840 some 170+ land sales were recorded in Sydney for Banks Penninsula alone,-all were declared null and void after the Treaty - how much money was returned I wonder.
To have a university lecturer declare that I have no culture is disgusting to say the least......
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