The Wananga Capital Establishment Report
Wananga Maori Education Funding claim
'A wananga is characterised by teaching and research that maintains, advances and disseminates knowledge and develops intellectual independence, and assists the application of knowledge regarding ahuatanga Maori (Maori tradition) according to tikanga Maori (Maori custom).'
Section 162(4)(b)(iv) of the Education Act 1989
The Wananga Capital Establishment Report relates to a claim by three wananga Maori established as tertiary education institutions under the Education Act 1989. The claim concerned the failure of the Crown to recognise the right of Maori, in terms of the Treaty of Waitangi, to receive capital funding, in order to provide properly for the education of Maori through programmes, and in an environment, designed to enhance their tertiary educational opportunities.
‘As Maori studies is located within a western university, it is subject to the western paradigm of knowledge which has severely hindered its growth. Such a circumstance is not tolerated for western science nor should it be tolerated for matauranga Maori.’
Charles Royal
‘The rapid increase in Maori participation in tertiary education requires a variety of strategies. That there is not only one strategy to be followed, nor only one type of provider to be involved. However, the three wananga are important elements in any strategy. They are different from other providers and different from each other. This diversity is to be welcomed. All three wananga need agreed programmes for rapid development.’
Dr Norman Kingsbury
The claim was filed with the Waitangi Tribunal on 11 May 1998 and registered as Wai 718 on 19 May 1998. It was brought by Rongo Herehere Wetere on behalf of Te Tauihu o nga Wananga Association, which represented the three wananga concerned: Te Wananga o Aotearoa, Te Wananga o Raukawa, and Te Whare Wananga o Awanuiarangi. The claimants alleged that the Crown had failed to fund wananga equitably when compared to other tertiary education institutions, such as universities, polytechnics, and colleges of education. Urgency was sought for the hearing of the claim because two of the wananga were at serious risk of financial collapse, owing to a lack of capital funding.
On 30 June 1998, Judge Richard Kearney granted the claim urgency, and a Tribunal consisting of Judge Kearney, Josephine Anderson, and Keita Walker heard the claim in October, November, and December of that year. The report was presented to the Minister of Maori Affairs and the claimants on 28 April 1999.
The Tribunal found that the Crown's tertiary education policies had served to disadvantage wananga and place their operations at risk, and it recommended that the Crown make a one-off payment to each of the wananga sufficient to:
* compensate them for moneys invested in their land, buildings, plant, and equipment;
* cover the cost of bringing the establishments up to a standard comparable to other tertiary education institutions;
* and meet the proper costs and disbursements of the claimants incurred in the preparation and presentation of their claims.
'Read as a whole, the Treaty of Waitangi created a partnership between the Crown and Maori. This partnership was a compact between two distinct peoples with their own culture, language, values, treasures, forms of property, and so forth. The Crown now acknowledges the concept that New Zealand is a bicultural polity and society. Biculturalism is an integral part of the overall Treaty partnership. It involves both cultures existing side by side in New Zealand, each enriching and informing the other. Under this overarching Treaty principle, therefore, the Crown's obligation to foster and support wananga is a clear and powerful one.
'Rangatiratanga involves, at the very least, a concept of Maori self-management. … The wananga that have been recognised as tertiary education institutions have all developed out of the efforts of Maori iwi groups to provide tertiary education to, in the first instance, their own people; in the second instance, Maori students; and, in the third instance, anyone who wishes to embrace this particular form of education. As such, the efforts of these tribal groups to create and sustain tertiary education institutions are a vital exercise of rangatiratanga. The establishment of wananga as tertiary education institutions recognised by the State represents an attempt to engage actively with the Crown in the exercise of rangatiratanga in the management of new forms of tribal and Maori education. The Crown's Treaty obligation is to foster, support, and assist these efforts. In doing so, the Crown needs to ensure that wananga are able to remain accountable to, and involved in, the communities that created them.
'In assuming the right to govern, the Crown took upon itself the duty actively to protect Maori interests. It is clear that te reo and matauranga Maori are taonga. It is also clear that the three wananga are playing an important role in studying, transmitting, and preserving these taonga. To meet its Treaty obligation to protect these taonga, the Crown should provide wananga with adequate support and resources in an appropriate manner.'
The Waitangi Tribunal
