Early Childhood Care and Education in Aotearoa - New Zealand: An overview of history, policy and curriculum

Abstract

The archipelago of Aotearoa was discovered by Maori who sailed in canoes from the Western Pacific approximately 1000 years ago. A tribal society was established. From the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, European exploration in the Antipodes led to colonisation by Britain in the nineteenth century (Salmond, 1991). During early contact, the use of the terms Maori (defined by Maori as being ‘ordinary’) and Pakeha (defined by Maori as ‘extraordinary’ and ‘white’) emerged. The founding document between Maori and the Pakeha Crown, the Treaty of Waitangi, was signed in 1840 (Orange, 1987). This was intended to protec t tino rangatiratanga (governance), taonga (treasured sites and objects) and land for Maori, and establish British rule for Pakeha settlers. The Treaty was soon breached when more Pakeha settlers arrived than there was land available that Maori was willing to sell (Belich, 1996, Salmond, 1997). By 1940 Maori had little land left, and their language was in decline. During the postwar years these issues became pertinent to early childhood education, as Maori preschoolers and their families became increasingly visible in suburbs and cities and the occasional kindergarten. Early childhood institutions established over the latter part of the century, both for Maori, and by Maori, were at the forefront of struggles over power and powerlessness, land, language and culture for Maori and Pakeha. Issues of European colonisation and tino rangatiratanga were still at the heart of the argument. Immigration from Europe accelerated during the postwar years and came to include, people from the various Pacific Island nations and more recently, migrants from Asia and Africa. Issues of biculturalism between Maori and Pakeha are now combined with the realities of multicultural diversity. This paradigm of diversity characterises early childhood provision in Aotearoa-New

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