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Aug. 18, 2003  (Radio Actuality)                                                               

EDUCATOR TO SPEAK ABOUT OVERCOMING STRUGGLES OF NEW ZEALAND INDIGENOUS POPULATION 

A foreign educator and researcher will give a free lecture this week about the struggles of New Zealand’s indigenous population to overcome social and cultural pressures. 

Lecturer Richard Manning will focus on the effects of the Treaty of Waitangi, the founding document of contemporary New Zealand society signed in 1840 by Māori, New Zealand’s indigenous population, and Britain, which colonized the country in the 19^th century.  

The treaty was written as two texts, one in English and one in Māori, and each side had different interpretations of the texts when they signed the documents, said Manning, who is seeking a PHd from the Institute for Maori Education and Development at Victoria University in New Zealand.  The divergent interpretations continue to this day, making the treaty one of the most controversial issues in the country, he said. 

“It’s so contentious because really it’s about power and decision making and it’s contentious because it’s about resources and the control of resources and the determination of peoples’ destiny,” said Manning, whose lecture will touch on Māori models of education in relation to the treaty and New Zealand government initiatives in mainstream schools.  

The issues faced by Māori are pertinent locally because Alaska Natives and Māori were both subjected to the same assimilative pressures that sought to eradicate Native languages and cultures, said Dr. Rosita Worl, president of Sealaska Heritage Institute (SHI), which is sponsoring the lecture. 

“Māori have developed a model for language restoration that the institute is attempting to replicate,” Worl said. “We also want to learn more about other Māori programs designed for Native males to address the social problems experienced by men.” 

The lecture is scheduled 7-9 p.m., Aug. 20, in the 4^th-floor boardroom of the Sealaska building in downtown Juneau. It is free of charge and open to the public. The lecture is the fourth talk in a lecture series sponsored by SHI, a nonprofit founded to perpetuate the Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian cultures. 
 

CONTACT: SHI President Dr. Rosita Worl, 463-4844