At the 10th World Congress of Education International, Laures Park was awarded the Mary Hatwood Futrell Human and Trade Union Rights Award 2024. In this interview, Laures describes her fight for the rights of the Māori people and minority groups in New Zealand.

Worlds of Education: Laures, could you introduce yourself to our readers and tell us about the journey that brought you here?

Ko Matawhaura te Maunga, Ko Ohau te Awa, Ko Ngati Pikiao te Iwi.

I know Dad takes Ngapuhi to iwi and my mum has come to Ngai Te Rangi and Te Whanau and Apanui to iwi. Ko Laures Park is fine.

My name is Laures Park, I work for NZEI Te Riu Roa as a Matua Takawaenga and am co-Chair of Te Rūnanga o ngā kaimahi Māori o Aotearoa, the New Zealand Council of Trade Unions.

My responsibility is to Māori members, Māori staff, Māori policies for NZEI Te Riu Roa, but also the needs and desires of others outside our organisation. In practice, as a Tiriti-based organisation, all parties within NZEI Te Riu Roa must work closely together to achieve a goal based on respect and trust.

Worlds of Education: The Mary Hatwood Futrell Human and Trade Union Rights Award recognises your exceptional leadership and commitment to transforming New Zealand’s education system to recognise and support Māori students and teachers, as well as members of other marginalised groups. What does this award mean to you?

For me, this award is a recognition of my whānau whānui and what we have achieved throughout our lives in developing our iwi (tribal groups) and in trying in every way possible to improve the situation for Māori.

My particular focus has been on examining why educational outcomes for mokopuna Māori never improve, and how much unions in general have done to help Indigenous people, from survival to education. Pasifika students and whānau have a similar status to Māori when it comes to education.

As co-organisers of Te Rūnanga o ngā Kaimahi Māori o Aotearoa (NZCTU), we share a responsibility to ensure Kaimahi Māori have a voice in all aspects of Aotearoa society. Every project funded by the Combined Trade Unions should have a Tiriti perspective, the area currently at risk.

Worlds of Education: Can you tell us about the situation of Māori students and teachers in the New Zealand education system? Where do you see progress and what challenges lie ahead?

The current education system is not working for New Zealand children, and this is reflected in the experiences of several marginalised minority groups. As part of Te Tiriti o Waitangi, we have a commitment to establish a system that recognises and promotes Māori and their identity. We believe that a system based on rangatiratanga gives children the right to determine their own aspirations and destiny, and works for all children through values ​​that mutually benefit society.

One of the revelations for us at NZEI Te Riu Roa was the acceptance and courage to talk about our racist education system, which is designed to ensure very few Māori succeed. No teacher goes to work intentionally failing the children entrusted to their care, but outcomes have shown for decades that this is the case, so the focus fell on Mokopuna Māori.

Worlds of Education: The Futrell Award recognizes your achievements as a union activist. Why did you decide to join the union, and in your experience, why and how can the union make a difference for teachers and students from marginalized communities?

I joined the union because my father was a trade unionist and believed in the collective strength of workers. I stayed in the union because the systems were not favouring us as a people and I wanted to see that change. Participating in the union was always about iwi development at every opportunity, which led to me supporting other Indigenous groups in Australia, the Pacific, Asia, the Americas and Europe.

Our international engagement with Indigenous groups has forced us to question our situation in Aotearoa, while simultaneously trying to improve the situation for others and find out what could change for them.

While attending one of the World Indigenous Conferences on Education, we found ourselves in a workshop with a group of Native Americans from California who were desperate to revive their native language. Our proposal was to take in the last surviving speaker and gather the children around so they could begin their language journey. A few years later, we learned of their amazing success story.

Is there a message you would like to share with education unionists around the world who are fighting against racism and discrimination in education and society today?

We as unionists have to accept that racism is a union problem, that racism is an educational problem, that racism is a societal problem, and that eradicating racism is a daily, everyday, everywhere task. We cannot leave this to someone else, we all have to get involved.

As a starting point, we have conducted surveys on racism within our organisation, which have highlighted many areas that need to be worked on. For most unions, this first step can be scary, but it also gives others the freedom to have an opinion.

Te Tiriti o Waitangi, Aotearoa’s founding document, is currently under scrutiny, so Ngai Māori are paying particular attention to the directions being proposed and issuing a general warning about what needs to be done about them.