The legislative relationship between New Zealand education and the Treaty of Waitangi is a recent one.
Up till 1989 there was no reference to it at all in the prevailing Education Act. It was taught as part of the history curriculum, although most classroom experiences will be of it being glossed over under three headings – Māori chiefs said Britain could take over New Zealand, they could keep their own land unless they sold it to the Crown, and everybody who lived in New Zealand had the same rights.
