This letter takes on Jessie Moss of NZEI, one of the ideologues behind the push to replace academic excellence with emotional ideology and religious instruction in New Zealand schools and kindergartens.
Understand the roots of this new DEI religion.
Share this letter if you believe education should be secular, academic, and equal for all.
Open Letter to Jessie Moss (NZEI Professional Education Adviser)
Dear Jessie,
I write this letter as a concerned parent, community member, and citizen of New Zealand.
I live on Waiheke Island, where I have personally witnessed the religious instruction of preschool children at Waiheke Kindergarten under the guise of cultural education. Children there are taught karakia to named atua — such as Tūmatauenga, the god of war — and encouraged to water the pou, which are meant to represent sacred ancestors. These are not simply educational exercises. They are acts of reverence presented to children as daily ritual. Children are performing acts to please the atua.
This is not coming from local Māori educators, who are generally respectful and clear about the difference between tikanga and religion. This is coming from non-Māori teachers, mostly white women, who appear to be caught up in a kind of ideological fervour. They call themselves “kaiako” and drop Māori words like “akonga” and “tamariki” into every second sentence when preparing documents intended for parents and the Education Review Office (ERO), not for the benefit of children, but to elevate their own cultural standing. It is performance, point scoring and it is indoctrination.
In the article you recently wrote for The Spinoff, you assert that educational attainment should not be the key objective for our schools. Instead, you suggest a system focused on emotional wellbeing, cultural inclusion, and connection. You do not once mention excellence, discipline, academic freedom, or rigour. You substitute them with slogans.
You describe yourself — or allow others to describe you — as a teacher. But despite claiming to be a “registered teacher,” there is no public record of a Bachelor of Teaching, Diploma of Teaching, or university graduation. Your name does not appear in the publicly searchable Teaching Council of Aotearoa New Zealand register. There is no LinkedIn profile or academic CV. To the best of our knowledge, you hold no verifiable qualifications in education.
When I studied child development and psychology at the University of Auckland and Teachers College, we were taught how children understand the world — and it wasn’t through abstract terminology and anthropomorphism. Whatever did you study when you attended some unnamed tertiary institution? CRT?
The fact that the Ministry of Education defends this by suggesting that four-year-olds understand the term anthropomorphic is insulting. My four-year-old son believes in Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny. I did not teach him these concepts myself — they came from the culture around him, and he absorbed them unquestioningly. The same is true for any supernatural concept introduced in an early childhood setting.
We are told that these karakia are just stories. But leading Māori academics are very clear: they are religion. Professor Margaret Mutu has stated:
It also violates common sense.
I find it both patronising and racist when white educators like you infantilise Māori children, as though they cannot thrive under the same academic expectations as others. Māori children — like all children — deserve a serious education. One that prioritises knowledge, not slogans.
You claim that colonial models of education don’t serve Māori. But education itself is a so-called colonial model. There was no formal schooling in pre-European Māori society. There was no written language, no syllabi, no schooling system. The 1877 Education Act offered free, compulsory, secular education to all children in New Zealand — boys and girls, Māori and Pākehā. Māori leaders supported this. They wrote letters to government requesting schools and requesting that instruction be delivered in English. Their requests were clear, dignified, and full of good sense.
It is deeply ironic that those Māori ancestors — with no university degrees or bureaucratic titles — had more educational wisdom than many of today’s self-declared “tangata Tiriti.”
The worldview you present throughout your article is now widely recognised: it is the language of DEI (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion), derived from American critical race theory. This ideology teaches that people are permanently defined by group identity, and that outcomes must be equalised through group preference. It prioritises equity over equality. It blurs truth with experience. It replaces merit with grievance.
You may not call yourself a Marxist, but your educational philosophy fits squarely within the neo-Marxist framework. It divides children by race. It downplays objective achievement. It politicises learning.
Worse, it sneaks spirituality into ECE and primary schools by disguising it as culture.
What has happened on Waiheke Island is not unique. I’ve spoken to families and teachers from around New Zealand who report similar experiences — the white women who call themselves “kaiako” and who impose karakia and reverence to atua in daily routines. These are not Māori-led decisions. These are decisions led by activist teachers influenced by white guilt, DiAngelo-style self-flagellation, and fashionable ideologies dressed up as virtue.
You claim to support inclusion. Yet your version of inclusion excludes those who hold to a secular, academically focused, pluralist model of education. Your form of inclusion demands conformity to a belief system. That is not inclusion. That is coercion.
Sincerely,
Judy Gill
Share this letter if you believe education should be secular, academic, and equal for all.
Open Letter to Jessie Moss (NZEI Professional Education Adviser)
Dear Jessie,
I write this letter as a concerned parent, community member, and citizen of New Zealand.
I live on Waiheke Island, where I have personally witnessed the religious instruction of preschool children at Waiheke Kindergarten under the guise of cultural education. Children there are taught karakia to named atua — such as Tūmatauenga, the god of war — and encouraged to water the pou, which are meant to represent sacred ancestors. These are not simply educational exercises. They are acts of reverence presented to children as daily ritual. Children are performing acts to please the atua.
This is not coming from local Māori educators, who are generally respectful and clear about the difference between tikanga and religion. This is coming from non-Māori teachers, mostly white women, who appear to be caught up in a kind of ideological fervour. They call themselves “kaiako” and drop Māori words like “akonga” and “tamariki” into every second sentence when preparing documents intended for parents and the Education Review Office (ERO), not for the benefit of children, but to elevate their own cultural standing. It is performance, point scoring and it is indoctrination.
In the article you recently wrote for The Spinoff, you assert that educational attainment should not be the key objective for our schools. Instead, you suggest a system focused on emotional wellbeing, cultural inclusion, and connection. You do not once mention excellence, discipline, academic freedom, or rigour. You substitute them with slogans.
You describe yourself — or allow others to describe you — as a teacher. But despite claiming to be a “registered teacher,” there is no public record of a Bachelor of Teaching, Diploma of Teaching, or university graduation. Your name does not appear in the publicly searchable Teaching Council of Aotearoa New Zealand register. There is no LinkedIn profile or academic CV. To the best of our knowledge, you hold no verifiable qualifications in education.
When I studied child development and psychology at the University of Auckland and Teachers College, we were taught how children understand the world — and it wasn’t through abstract terminology and anthropomorphism. Whatever did you study when you attended some unnamed tertiary institution? CRT?
The fact that the Ministry of Education defends this by suggesting that four-year-olds understand the term anthropomorphic is insulting. My four-year-old son believes in Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny. I did not teach him these concepts myself — they came from the culture around him, and he absorbed them unquestioningly. The same is true for any supernatural concept introduced in an early childhood setting.
We are told that these karakia are just stories. But leading Māori academics are very clear: they are religion. Professor Margaret Mutu has stated:
- “The atua are our ancestors. They are real. Their mana flows through us via whakapapa. To honour ourselves, we must honour the atua.”
- “The atua are part of the environment, the universe. We descend from them — they are not myths, they are genealogical reality.”
It also violates common sense.
I find it both patronising and racist when white educators like you infantilise Māori children, as though they cannot thrive under the same academic expectations as others. Māori children — like all children — deserve a serious education. One that prioritises knowledge, not slogans.
You claim that colonial models of education don’t serve Māori. But education itself is a so-called colonial model. There was no formal schooling in pre-European Māori society. There was no written language, no syllabi, no schooling system. The 1877 Education Act offered free, compulsory, secular education to all children in New Zealand — boys and girls, Māori and Pākehā. Māori leaders supported this. They wrote letters to government requesting schools and requesting that instruction be delivered in English. Their requests were clear, dignified, and full of good sense.
It is deeply ironic that those Māori ancestors — with no university degrees or bureaucratic titles — had more educational wisdom than many of today’s self-declared “tangata Tiriti.”
The worldview you present throughout your article is now widely recognised: it is the language of DEI (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion), derived from American critical race theory. This ideology teaches that people are permanently defined by group identity, and that outcomes must be equalised through group preference. It prioritises equity over equality. It blurs truth with experience. It replaces merit with grievance.
You may not call yourself a Marxist, but your educational philosophy fits squarely within the neo-Marxist framework. It divides children by race. It downplays objective achievement. It politicises learning.
Worse, it sneaks spirituality into ECE and primary schools by disguising it as culture.
What has happened on Waiheke Island is not unique. I’ve spoken to families and teachers from around New Zealand who report similar experiences — the white women who call themselves “kaiako” and who impose karakia and reverence to atua in daily routines. These are not Māori-led decisions. These are decisions led by activist teachers influenced by white guilt, DiAngelo-style self-flagellation, and fashionable ideologies dressed up as virtue.
You claim to support inclusion. Yet your version of inclusion excludes those who hold to a secular, academically focused, pluralist model of education. Your form of inclusion demands conformity to a belief system. That is not inclusion. That is coercion.
Sincerely,
Judy Gill
BSc, DipTchg
Waiheke Island
Waiheke Island
Judy Gill is a parent, former teacher, and a staunch advocate for secular education.
5 comments:
And our leaders can’t see what is happening -or don’t want to see! They are allowing further racial divide by not putting an end to the rorts. No wonder people are leaving the country.
Is Jill seriously suggesting that education is supposed to benefit children? What a novel idea.
Absolutely spot on. Well said Judy. This is being posted to my facebook page now.
Sadly Judy, they do not care for actual educational acheivement outcomes.
They are ideologues and their absolute is what is first and forever foremost to them.
My father was a teacher/principal for his entire career and he never would have bowed to this ideological clap trap as he beleived in 'education'. He, like me today can not understand why or how people who call themselves educators allow ideology to replace academic achievement.
To me, the people that do this are not educators and are therefore unfit for their roles as such.
They say the fish rots from the head but quite a large part of the body has embraced the rot and this is why today NZ sits toward the bottom of the OECD in educational achievement in simple things like basic reading etc.
What a sad, silly, unnecessary outcome to have fallen to, all because sad, silly, unnecessary people think they have the answers which in hindsight they clearly do not!
I'm going to predict that these far left nut cases like Jessie moss are just on the stupidity popularity movement bandwagon. I'm unsure if she actually believes this nonsense, but unfortunately at the moment, it's popular. Ask any Greek if they actually believe that Zeus actually exists and will perform magic powers for them -and they just laugh. Unfortunately maori believe this rubbish and they have managed to con a number of dim witted others that these imaginary gods actually do exist.
Yes, I agree it's dangerous and these type of idiots should not be allowed anywhere near kids, but they are.
Hopefully the next far left fad comes along where it's cool to walk around clucking and flapping your arm like a chicken while clucking at the moon.....dimwits like Jessie moss will move on. Especially now she's been found out.
Great work Judy.
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