History as curriculum; history as politics

Abstract

This article examines a particular incident in the Waikato wars, 1863–4 and its relevance to the newly mandated New Zealand History curriculum. The new curriculum will for the first time make the teaching of local history compulsory in years 1–10. I examine the wide variety of submissions about the content of this curriculum. As the Royal Society’s Expert Advisory Panel (2021, p. 20) responded, there is a recognition ‘that History can hurt’. It is an opportunity to reject earlier stories of imperial nation-building and support the recovery of subjected, often unheard, voices from the community. I examine two perspectives of an ‘incident’ at Rangiaowhia, first from an historian’s perspective, then, a rearticulated narrative of hapū, Te Apakura. I also examine two local retellings, where the indigenous perspectives are given voice. Unless the silence is broken, countries’ past will be unaddressed and native peoples injuriously affected.