Kaupapa Maori Intervention in Post-Graduate Education: Ko te Pae Tawhiti Arumia Kia Tata: Seek to Bring the Distant Horizons Closer

Abstract

Article Three of the Treaty of Waitangi promises Maori equal rights to enjoy the benefits of citizenship in Aotearoa/New Zealand, including quality education. We have had more than a century of bad news about the failure of the education system to uphold that promise. It is now, at the beginning of the 21st century, with the renaissance for Maori responding to the systemic failures by claiming and reframing the problems and implementing Maori-centred solutions, that progress is being made. Kaupapa Maori is emerging from within the Maori world itself with practical solutions that work for Maori and begin to impact positively at all levels of education, from early childhood through to post- graduate studies. This renewal has positive effects for the whole nation and potentially offers models for other minority indigenous peoples of the world to draw from and adapt for their own development.