Dame Elizabeth Rata: Episode 2 - Early Schools, Intermarriage, Nation-building 1815-1877

In the video below Episode Two explains how English became accepted as the language of national unity. The Māori language remained in constant use. There were 42 Māori language newspapers, Māori travelled the country with books and slates, and attended the Māori instruction missionary schools. Literacy, in either or both languages, provided individuals with a new status. Waaka Te Huia's work as a paid scribe, writing in Māori, illustrates the modern man for the new world.

Accounts of early schools in Wellington and free public libraries from the 1840s show that British settlers were also eager for education. Governor George Grey's 1847 Education Ordinance began government funding for education. The very mixed standard of provincial schooling from 1852 was replaced by the nation-wide system of the 1877 Education Act. Comparisons with other 19th century nations show how advanced New Zealand education was despite all the obstacles in establishing a national system in an undeveloped land.

The episode touches on the acceptance and extent of Māori-European intermarriage. Children mixed together at school – from a young age, across the country, and from the 1840s. It wasn't only a new nation that was being created. A new people for that nation was also forming. Education would provide the new culture for the new people. New Zealand's Coat of Arms depicting a European woman, Zealandia, and a Māori man is the symbol of unity for this nation-building era.

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Professor Elizabeth Rata is a sociologist of education in the School of Critical Studies, Faculty of Education and Social Work at the University of Auckland where she is Director of the Knowledge in Education Research Unit (KERU).