And let’s be honest: this was not some minor adjustment. ACT, alongside National and NZ First, removed the legal obligation outright. It’s gone. Deleted. Repealed. Section 9’s Treaty compliance requirement — the clause activists clung to like gospel — is no more. School boards are now required to prioritise educational achievement, not spiritual or cultural indoctrination. Treaty duties sit with the Crown, not PTA volunteers.
But the sector’s reaction? A dramatic nationwide tantrum. Schools suddenly proclaim they have a sacred mission to “honour the Treaty,” though they cannot, for the life of them, explain what that actually means in operational terms. “Honour the Treaty” has become the magic password that justifies everything — from mandatory Māori spiritual rituals to compulsory cultural worldviews baked into maths, science, and English.
Let’s drop the politeness for a moment. Māori culture and Māori spirituality are not separate entities. They are a single system, two sides of the same coin. Schools are not simply teaching culture; they are introducing spirituality into a secular public system under the convenient disguise of “heritage.” Somehow, unbelievably, spiritual content slipped past the secular firewall — and not by accident. It happened through legislative ambiguity and activist interpretation.
That ambiguity is now gone. The law has changed. Yet the indoctrination continues.
Parents who don’t want their children participating in Māori prayers, chants, karakia, haka, or spiritual teachings are not asking for the moon. They’re asking for the same thing secular schools have always promised: neutrality. But neutrality has become heresy. The moment a parent says, “I don’t want my child taking part in compulsory spiritual or cultural rituals,” they’re branded racist. The label is thrown around so casually it has lost all meaning.
Calling the Government racist for removing a Treaty clause? Absurd. Childish. Lazy. The clause was removed because schools were reinventing it into a licence for activism. The Treaty has morphed from a historical document into an apartheid rulebook, used to justify two-tier systems in everything from public services to curriculum design.
This is not an attack on Māori. This is an attack on mandatory belief systems in taxpayer-funded institutions. Nobody objects to culture, language, or tradition when participation is voluntary. But when schools decide your child must learn a spiritual worldview to pass the term, it’s not education — it’s coercion.
Auckland University tried this just this year with its compulsory Māori mythology paper. It blew up in their faces. Students revolted. The paper became optional because it had to. A university pushing compulsory spirituality? Madness. Now the same madness is spreading into primary and secondary schools — and at a much larger scale.
The public system does not belong to activists. It does not belong to cultural lobbyists. It does not belong to school boards acting like rogue political cells. It belongs to every New Zealander, every family, every taxpayer. And secularism is not racism; it is the only safeguard that ensures equal treatment.
Parents aren’t asking schools to abandon Māori culture. They’re asking schools to stop forcing it. There is a difference. A big one. Optional is fine. Mandatory is an abuse of authority.
It is time — long past time — for parents to speak up. Not with apologies. Not with hesitation. But with clarity:
Anything less is not diversity — it’s division. Anything more than optional cultural content is not respect — it’s coercion.
New Zealand deserves better than ideological schooling masquerading as enlightenment. And the public is waking up. Finally.
■ Make New Zealand Secular
https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1FZdTSnfHo/
----------------------------------------
This post was inspired by numerous online articles. This being one of them: https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/te-manu-korihi/579646/expression-of-kotahitanga-more-than-1000-schools-reaffirm-commitment-to-te-tiriti-o-waitangi
John Robertson is a patriotic New Zealander who frequently posts on Facebook.
But the sector’s reaction? A dramatic nationwide tantrum. Schools suddenly proclaim they have a sacred mission to “honour the Treaty,” though they cannot, for the life of them, explain what that actually means in operational terms. “Honour the Treaty” has become the magic password that justifies everything — from mandatory Māori spiritual rituals to compulsory cultural worldviews baked into maths, science, and English.
Let’s drop the politeness for a moment. Māori culture and Māori spirituality are not separate entities. They are a single system, two sides of the same coin. Schools are not simply teaching culture; they are introducing spirituality into a secular public system under the convenient disguise of “heritage.” Somehow, unbelievably, spiritual content slipped past the secular firewall — and not by accident. It happened through legislative ambiguity and activist interpretation.
That ambiguity is now gone. The law has changed. Yet the indoctrination continues.
Parents who don’t want their children participating in Māori prayers, chants, karakia, haka, or spiritual teachings are not asking for the moon. They’re asking for the same thing secular schools have always promised: neutrality. But neutrality has become heresy. The moment a parent says, “I don’t want my child taking part in compulsory spiritual or cultural rituals,” they’re branded racist. The label is thrown around so casually it has lost all meaning.
Calling the Government racist for removing a Treaty clause? Absurd. Childish. Lazy. The clause was removed because schools were reinventing it into a licence for activism. The Treaty has morphed from a historical document into an apartheid rulebook, used to justify two-tier systems in everything from public services to curriculum design.
This is not an attack on Māori. This is an attack on mandatory belief systems in taxpayer-funded institutions. Nobody objects to culture, language, or tradition when participation is voluntary. But when schools decide your child must learn a spiritual worldview to pass the term, it’s not education — it’s coercion.
Auckland University tried this just this year with its compulsory Māori mythology paper. It blew up in their faces. Students revolted. The paper became optional because it had to. A university pushing compulsory spirituality? Madness. Now the same madness is spreading into primary and secondary schools — and at a much larger scale.
The public system does not belong to activists. It does not belong to cultural lobbyists. It does not belong to school boards acting like rogue political cells. It belongs to every New Zealander, every family, every taxpayer. And secularism is not racism; it is the only safeguard that ensures equal treatment.
Parents aren’t asking schools to abandon Māori culture. They’re asking schools to stop forcing it. There is a difference. A big one. Optional is fine. Mandatory is an abuse of authority.
It is time — long past time — for parents to speak up. Not with apologies. Not with hesitation. But with clarity:
- Public schools are not marae.
- Classrooms are not temples.
- Curriculum is not a political pamphlet.
- We teach law, not lore.
- Education, not indoctrination.
Anything less is not diversity — it’s division. Anything more than optional cultural content is not respect — it’s coercion.
New Zealand deserves better than ideological schooling masquerading as enlightenment. And the public is waking up. Finally.
■ Make New Zealand Secular
https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1FZdTSnfHo/
----------------------------------------
This post was inspired by numerous online articles. This being one of them: https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/te-manu-korihi/579646/expression-of-kotahitanga-more-than-1000-schools-reaffirm-commitment-to-te-tiriti-o-waitangi
John Robertson is a patriotic New Zealander who frequently posts on Facebook.
10 comments:
Yery well said, YES i agree 100%
A real litmus test for the 2026 election and NZ's future. Will parents raise their voices?
>"We teach law, not lore."
There is nothing wrong with teaching lore, as long as it is as part of the Social Studies curriculum and is taught as lore and not as law!
The same goes for religion. I am all in favour of teaching school learners about religion under Social Studies. Youngsters need to know what the main world religions are and what their tenets are. A subtopic could be pagan religions which would include NZ Maori.
Admittedly, this would raise the possibility of some teachers using that SocStuds topic to proselytise; principals would need to ensure that the treatment of religion in the classroom was ideologically neutral. Ideally, teachers would have academic qualifications in Comparative Religion.
Won't be long before english is banned in favour of te reo. If you look up te partly policy it says schools must teach 50% of all classes in te reo and their funding will be based on how much is taught. Presemably if all classes are te reo based, the school gets more funding.So our future is kidsl unable to read or write and completely brainwashed in te tiriti.
Yes.... in an ideal and logical world. Aotearoa has veered far away from this.
Yes - so just fine that English is not an official language of NZ in legislation. This allows for all sort of dirty tactics.
John you seem to have a different logical take than I would expect from a highly educated chap. You state “The Government removed the requirement for school boards to “give effect to the Treaty of Waitangi,” but schools are pressing ahead as if the law never changed.”
What does the reading of the law change tell you? There is no requirement to give effect to Te Tiriti, and at the same time there is no requirement not to. Therefore schools are free to do so if they choose.
David Seymour told me that not many schools are doing this anyway, so I dunno what the faff is all about here. Of course it would be better if our educators were legally required to respect and reflect our nation’s heritage (it’s just common sense), but at least they still have the freedom to choose to. I had to sing “God Save The Queen” from a young age, for many years, back at school and it didn’t turn me religious. Give the kids a bit more credit, they’re smarter than you think.
I believe teachers are frightened of this new curriculum for the simple reason they are not sufficently knowledgeable to teach it, having been subject themselves to uneducated teachers during their own periods at schools and teacher-training colleges. They need to go back to college and learn the 3-Rs properly.
Progressives in Education have never been interested in educating children but used schools instead for social engineering
Similarly Marxism in our schools is not one iota interested in any child's education or Maori welfare but promoting Marxism which means destroying Western Culture.
Classical Marxism failed so now neo Marxism has changed tack to race and identity. The aim remains the same -destroy Western Culture.
School Boards. I recall when the concept was first "mooted", and then put into place. At each School Parents' would vote for whom they thought was best "pick", mostly based on the candidates' bio. Yup, up and running. Then the "stories" started to do the rounds of the neighborhood - that what was the "intent" of the board, was now becoming the "intent" of the 'few' who had agenda's to pursue. The came the stories of Teacher "interference" with board direction, intent, etc - that did not meet teacher ideology. Not sure then if any parent 'stood up and opposed', and over that past years, most parents would have been unaware of what the school board was up to [unless school newsletter went out] - or teacher intent as manifested by their unions.
So if " their is digging of toes in the sand" - maybe the Minister could rise & make a determined statement of intent as 'directed by her portfolio', rather than attending "photo opportunities"
that have nothing to do with education?
I am creating " a list" of current Ministers of The Crown, who are showing less than potential capability - first 3
- Paul Goldsmith = BSA
- Simeon Brown = " i have written a letter to .."
- Erica Stanford = lots of paper direction, insufficient 'smacking of ears of the non compliant'.
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