About Our Truth, Tā Mātou Pono

A tapestry of stories to challenge the Eurocentric narrative

Aotearoa New Zealand has a rich history most of us know very little about.

It is a colourful flax-woven, cotton-filled, flower-embroidered, silk-threaded tapestry of stories, both challenging and inspiring, to be admired and appreciated by everyone who calls this land home.

As a nation, we don’t know enough about the stories of all our people who experienced awe, whakamā, wonder, horror, kotahitanga, broken promises, racism, tino rangatiratanga, innovation, destruction and much more throughout history.

What our tīpuna or forefathers did, or did not do, in the past is the reason for what’s happening now. If we do not reckon with their actions, our history, we cannot know what we need to determine the present and future.

The history of te ao Māori, the Māori world, and how it was replaced by the legacy of European colonisation is a  narrative we barely understand, but its consequences we live every day.

Stuff has discovered in its part two investigation – Our Truth, Tā Mātou Pono: The truth about Aotearoa – there are many stories and voices missing from our history, either deliberately excluded or not, that we need to learn about to truly understand who we are as a nation.

What history we do know was written mainly from a monocultural Western lens with little input from Māori or other minority cultures. This single lens history has legitimised and supported the prevailing Eurocentric perspective in every system governing this country.

In part one of our investigation published last year, we not only discovered the truth about Stuff, we also realised New Zealanders, in general, are ignorant about this country’s history.

Kūaretanga or ignorance makes people vulnerable to mistruths, creates falsehoods and worse, supports discrimination.

The second part of our investigation, which will be published over several months, begins on Waitangi Day. Around 50 Stuff staff are involved, including reporters, visual journalists, and production staff from across the country. This follows our 2018 campaign to back compulsory New Zealand history in schools along with calls from iwi Māori, academics, teachers and students, such as those at Ōtorohanga College.

In 2019, the Government announced Māori and New Zealand history would be compulsory and taught in all schools in 2022. The draft history curriculum was released this week for public feedback.

Our many stories include hate speech against Jews, segregation of Māori, the deadly anti-Chinese league, Wellington’s history of imported American racism such as the Ku Klux Klan, and undercover police raids against gay men.

We take a deep dive into the racist and confusing Māori land laws, find out about the ‘forever foreigner’ concept affecting migrants of colour, and discover the wider implications of the first state execution.

Whāia te mātauranga hei oranga mō koutou – seek knowledge for your wellbeing.