Tracey Lee Repia

It’s such a typical day when a Minister demands democracy from Kohanga Reo and the many whanau and mokopuna that it serves.

The Waitangi tribunal claim Wai 2336 was taken by the Kohanga Reo trust on behalf of the many Kohanga Reo and their whanau in 2012 triggered by a publication in 2011, a report conducted by the Early Childhood Education task force.  The Kohanga Reo movement claimed that the Crown had breached treaty rights for the past 20 years and the Crown was moving to assimiliate Te Kohanga Reo movement to ECE under the Ministry of Education.

It really grinds the very fabric of my being when the Minister refuses to acknowledge that MOE and the government has failed for the last two decades to provide Kohanga Reo with equal funding compared to Early Childhood institutions, making it near impossible to advance the kaupapa on par with the forever regulatory changes imposed on our centres for licensing requirements.

I know this first hand, I’ve been a mama in Kohanga Reo for the past decade my husband and I have had four of our children attend Kohanga Reo from 8 months old, we have been extremely fortunate that at our children have the opportunity to live and breath their Reo Rangatira and practice our traditional ways everyday at Kohanga and at home there’s no way they would have ever gotten that from mainstream education and that’s a fact.  Kohanga has provided the support and foundation for much of our own personal growth as a whanau.  We owe this to the unrelenting community support and our local kuia kaumatua who fought to ensure our future as Maori was to be protected.

Over the last decade the deprivation of quality funding and resources is more than noticeable, when your still flipping sausages to fundraise for the basic of resources for the mokopuna, it’s a kick in the teeth to then hear from Minister Hekia Parata that she knows what we need and wont even discuss what it is we desperately need to so we can advance movements to protect and preserve Te Reo Maori for our future generations and at least pay our staff a Living Wage.

The tribunal made important findings that indeed once again the Crown has breached Maori rights afforded to us in Te Tiriti O Waitangi (aren’t we a little sick of hearing that right?).  It’s actually becoming the ‘norm’ for us, which is very sad and extremely annoying.  The hypocrisy is just numbing and disappointing especially considering many of our Iwi and hapu bodies are negotiating Treaty Settlements and engaging the process for past Crown grievances dating back to the early 1800’s, land confiscation, land alienation and theft but the Crown continues to create new Treaty breeches.  Have we really progressed this treaty partnership?  Will we ever when the goal posts keep moving and the government makes up new rules as we go along?

So I say Hekia, it’s not yours or the governments call on how we choose to govern our movement, it’s actually none of your business.   You think we don’t know what democracy is? Maori have been operating for centuries in that fashion, we are a whanau led services for cripe sakes, Kohanga Reo created the Whariki , a holistic model the MOE promotes for family led services, which MOE then repackaged and fobs off as its own.  WE did that it belongs to Maori.   So if that isn’t democratic I don’t know what is.   If you haven’t noticed Tino Rangatiratanga – Self Determination is about the ability for Maori to set the parameters how we see fit to govern not to be dictated to by the Government of the day.

Hekia just get on with honoring the Treaty so we can get on with providing our mokopuna a stable, well funded and resourced, enriched Te Reo Maori learning environment and we can at least afford to pay our well deserving staff a Living Wage.  We are seriously over it!

Tracey-lee Repia

Mama of the Kohanga Reo Movement