Showing a Commitment to the Bi-cultural Partnership in Aotearoa New Zealand

The Treaty of Waitangi

•  Respect for the heritages, languages and cultures of both partners to the Treaty of Waitangi 

How is this relevant in my Art teaching practice;

I do often feel like when I am given a form to tick off for appraisal, that when I get to this section, are they asking me if I can say the Maori students names clearly and reasonably correctly? Who is planning on trying to prove there is more to it in my subject area? It's a little bit frustrating that we are essentially founded on this document as a nation and resultingly, as a culture, yet an acknowledgement of this document is something more like lip service. I am almost certain that people I have held in esteem in the past of my teaching career have all but encouraged this without necessarily meaning to offend. 

I find the wording does allow for that; '...respect for...' sort of allows you to ignore that there are two cultures here, if you don't want to personally allow it into your practice; '...it's not really that relevant to [topic] right now...' but the title of the criteria is to "Show commitment to...". The title is strong, the explanatory note is not. It allows for a weakness in holding us accountable to the Treaty.

This is also not about the fact that the right here and now of New Zealand is a multi-cultural here and now. It is about the founding document of the here and now and honouring this meaningfully. 

"...unlike many other countries, New Zealand does not have a constitution in the form of a single document. It has a collection of common laws, customs and legislation that establish the framework of government. The Treaty was the initial agreement that established British authority. This authority was later transferred to the New Zealand Parliament..." from http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/ 

So now, I think I will leave this particular post as a work in progress, on which I will add further evidence as to how I think this is expressed in my current practice. I don't want to create a separate page for it, as it is only one of several criteria we are expected to meet as professional teachers, and I have not done that for other criteria.