How to talk about Te Tiriti
Talking about the Treaty with your children might be different if you are Ma¯ori or if you’re Pa¯keha¯ – or if you don’t have children. If your family has moved here from a different country, it might feel unfamiliar and tricky to engage with. It might not even feel applicable. But if you’ve made Aotearoa your home, the Treaty does affect you – here are some ways to start the conversation.
Tell them the story
Not every child loves discussing politics, history or the translation differences in Article Two. But they do love stories. Our history is a story. Tell them stories about our country so that they can see how they are a part of it. There are lots of books out there that tell our story, but we recommend that you check out the The Chronicles of Paki: Series One. They are aimed at children but you will almost certainly learn something, too.
Place them in the story
Paint scenarios and ask questions that help your child engage with the idea of ownership and sharing. They could imagine they live on a beautiful beach and can surf every day on uncrowded waves. Then one day people show up and want to live on the beach and surf the waves, too. Is that fair? How would you make that work for everyone?
What if you turned up to a playground and there were already kids playing on it. You want to play as well. Is that fair? How could you make that work for everyone? Obviously the Treaty is far more complex, but it can help start the conversation.
Give them an analogy
If your child has ever been to a wedding, you could use that as an analogy. A marriage is when two different people make a whole lot of promises to each other so they can make one relationship work. That is sort of what the Treaty is. Making a marriage work isn’t easy. It is learning to see through the eyes of our partner, being willing to compromise and learning to put the interests of our partner ahead of our own, to build a healthy relationship.
We haven’t always been able to make the partnership work as promised in the Treaty, but we still think the Treaty of Waitangi is a beautiful dream of two peoples living peacefully together in one land.