As a youngster, our eldest had a keen sense of social justice so it seemed to be a natural progression for her to take interest in gaining a scholarship into attending law school at AUT University, initially at the city campus and now at the South Auckland campus. I had wanted for her to follow in my footsteps at the University of Auckland where I first started my academic journey and now as an alumni and post graduate from that and now two three other tertiary institutions.
Now in her second year, she has developed a keen sense of sharing her knowledge with lay people, like myself and my class, in order to be able to understand the NZ constitution, its structure and how it affects the Treaty with indigenous peoples.
It made for an interesting conversation and also a flipping of the narrative regarding Maori in low rates of academic achievement, high rates in prison and in need of medical support etc. that in actual fact the Treaty of Waitangi was created to benefit those who were non Maori.
You only have to look into New Zealand history to see that soon after the signing of the treaty by some Maori leaders (not all) at the time in 1840, the illegal confiscation of land grabbing began (disguised under legal speak). There began the demise of the indigenous peoples of the land and the negative outcomes and impact is what we see in NZ society today.
It was a real wake up call for myself and the audience. It was also an important wake up call in the sense of a new generation studying and reading case law and being able to make sense of it for themselves and sharing the injustices that have happened in the past instead of normalizing it.
The world is becoming a very different place in what was socially accepted practice and now as there is a re-historying happening from, indigenous perspectives, it is beginning to change the course of history with new narratives that make more sense, give a better sense of hope for now and for the future...
No comments:
Post a Comment