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Guest Writer

He Reta ki te Tirti nā Te Ara Whānui

Nā Te Kura Kaupapa Māori o Te Ara Whānui


Tēnā koe, te Tiriti o Waitangi 

A treaty born of compromise and pain 

Signed by our tīpuna, with hopes and dreams 

For a future where our cultures would entwine


Article One, the Crown’s promise to protect 

Our language, our culture, our tikanga to respect 

But history tells a different story, one of shame 

Assimilation, suppression, and a legacy of pain 


Article Two, the guarantee of our rights 

To our whenua, our taonga, our very lives 

But still we fight, for the land we hold dear 

Against the Crown’s breaches, year after year 


Article Three, the gift of citizenship 

But at what cost, our identity, our whakapapa? 

We’re forced to confirm, to fit the mould 

Leaving our Māoritanga, our souls to grow old 


Yet still we rise, with resilience and might 

Our reo, our culture, shining like the morning light 

In our Kura Kaupapa, we learn and grow 

Embracing our heritage, letting our spirits glow


Te Tiriti o Waitangi, a treaty of old 

A promise unfulfilled, a story yet untold 

But we hold on to hope, to the dreams of our past 

For a future where our cultures will forever last.


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