Brave New Curriculum: Aotearoa New Zealand History and New Zealand’s Schools

Abstract

Public history in New Zealand since the 1990s has been often dominated by the need to acknowledge New Zealand’s colonial past. Included in the British Empire by treaty in 1840 between the British Crown and its indigenous tribes, New Zealand’s European population has often idealized the country’s race relations. In recent decades, Māori assertiveness has led to a greater recognition of the damage done to Māori communities as New Zealand increasingly became a settler society. Inquiries into New Zealand’s colonial history since the 1980s have led to new settlements between Crown and iwi (tribal authorities). Demands that New Zealand’s colonial history be part of the school curriculum have also increased over this time. New Zealand’s decentralized social science and social studies curricula have been largely non-prescriptive, meaning that most children get little grounding in New Zealand’s history. In September 2019, the government announced that New Zealand history would become compulsory by the beginning of the 2022 school year. Defining this curriculum poses significant challenges to the country in a short period of time, challenges compounded by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.