Leading experts have condemned moves by the government of Aotearoa to remove te reo Māori from early-reading pukapuka (books).
Radio New Zealand reports that University of Auckland Professor of Māori Studies and linguist Margaret Mutu (Ngāti Kahu, Te Rarawa, Ngāti Whātua) believes erasing te reo Māori from young children's learning is "an attempt to maintain the doctrine of discovery" and "inculcate white supremacy".
"It's a very, very dangerous move and I feel really sorry for the mokopuna [grandchildren], who are being grossly misinformed and educated wrongly," she said.
Dr Mutu said the measure breaches both Te Tiriti o Waitangi and human rights.
Earlier this month, the Education Ministry scrapped early-reading book At the Marae from its Ready to Read Phonics Plus (RtRPP) series, because - in the view of the National Party and its political allies - it had "too many" Māori words.
The move is part of a wider policy, approved by Education Minister Erica Stanford in October 2024 but only publicly revealed via leaked documents on 13 August, to exclude all Māori words, apart from character names, from any new books in the series.
At the time, the decision affected 13 books in development, all of which only included Māori words in character names. The wider series, which currently has 27 books featuring Māori words, could still be reprinted once finished, RNZ reports.
Dr Mutu, who has a PhD specialising in linguistics, said exposure to more than one language at a young age was extremely beneficial.
"Children are particularly capable of obtaining a number of different languages up to the age of six," she told RNZ.
"At that stage, there is just no difficulty, no complication or anything about a child learning multiple languages. It actually gives them much greater intellectual flexibility to be able to understand a whole lot of different things, because they have access to more than one language.
"Being restricted and being monolingual is actually severely detrimental to children," she said.
"To deny them this exposure at the age of five is not only stupid, it's very dangerous."
She also accused the Minister of "falsifying what New Zealand English actually is".
"New Zealand English is full of Māori words and most speakers don't even think about it. It's just part of who they are, as people living in a Māori country.
Dr Mutu pointed to the Dictionary of New Zealand English and the New Zealand Oxford Dictionary as evidence, both containing hundreds of kupu Māori (Māori words) that are neither place names nor rare.
"What on earth is she trying to do here? Teach five-year-olds a different version of English than the one that actually exists in this country?" she said.
"It's long past time Māori and English were given equal attention in the entire schooling system, so people can be comfortable in this country."
The minister's decision has sparked backlash from literacy experts, principals, teachers and Māori education leaders.
Te Akatea, the Māori Principals' Association, called the move "an act of white supremacy" and "an act of racism".
Dr Mutu said the change was part of a pattern of behaviour from a "strongly anti-Māori and extremely racist" National Party-led government.
She told RNZ she hoped tamariki (children) would still hear and use te reo Māori in their daily lives, and that removing them from what they read in school was "shameful".
"It's a crying shame."
Once the policy was made public, Minister Standford claimed she would not remove Māori words from existing books and more titles in the series would still include Māori names and place names.
