supporting tiriti-based curriculum delivery in mainstream early ...

culture and teaching emphasise te reo Māori me ōna tikanga (Pakai, 2004).
However, in contrast to this education by Māori facilitators, mainstream teachers
who provided data for thesis reported that connecting to whānau Māori was
difficult for them. This is discussed in chapters 6 and 7.
Similar findings emerged when researchers Moore and Hennessy (2006)
examined bicultural programmes with the Tagish, whose traditional territory is
south-western Yukon and north-western British Columbia. Their research found
three principles that the Tagish used when implementing their bicultural
programme. The first principle was that language, culture, and the land are
inseparably intertwined; the second principle asserts that traditional behaviour is
important and the third principle purports that Elders have custodial authority
(Moore & Hennessy, 2006).
Likewise, Wetzel (2006), noted the importance of the interconnectedness
of language and culture in revitalisation programmes amongst the Potawatomi
Tribes, who were originally from Lake Michigan but have now spread through
parts of Canada and the United States of America. There are similarities between
the Tagish, the Potawatomi Tribes, and Māori culture and tikanga. This is
especially evident in places such as marae and at Te Kōhanga Reo where
traditional protocol takes precedence. Once again the importance of working with
Māori is to facilitate understanding of culture and language for mainstream early
childhood teachers becomes apparent.
What is quite clear from this critical literature review is that a number of
scholars have recognised the importance of involving indigenous people in
bolstering learning. In my view this principle can be generalised to mainstream
early childhood education, and chapters 5-7 address this proposition.
One Canadian programme with similar goals to Te Kōhanga Reo but with
a different approach is the Tungasuvvingat Inuit Head Start programme in Ottawa,
Canada (Reynolds, 1998). Parents wanted their children to know about their native
language and culture and many of the early childhood resources in the programmes
were those which supported Inuit lifestyle and culture. However, the difference
was that, unlike Māori immersion centres where all staff speak solely in te reo
Māori, only one of the two indigenous teachers were expected to speak the
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