Graham Adams: Did Pakeha really crush traditional Maori medicine?

Jacinda Ardern claimed in Parliament in 2021 that her government was driving “foundational change”. As Exhibits A and B for this project — which would allegedly “make a long-term difference to how we see ourselves” — she cited the Matariki public holiday and the new compulsory school history curriculum that focuses largely on the Māori experience of colonisation.

The curriculum will be introduced to schools from next year but there is a much more pressing need for compulsory history lessons to begin immediately for our politicians, journalists and health leaders. After all, schoolchildren usually don’t get the chance to write columns in newspapers or take part in television programmes that — wittingly or unwittingly — mislead thousands of their compatriots.