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At Education International’s 10th World Congress, Laures Park was awarded the 2024 Mary Hatwood Futrell Human and Trade Union Rights Award. In this interview, Laures retraces her fight for the rights of 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 to this point?

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

I te taha o tōku papa ko Ngapuhi te Iwi, i te taha o tōku mama ko Ngai Te Rangi me Te Whanau a Apanui ngā Iwi. Ko Laures Park taku ingoa.

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

My responsibilities are based around Māori members, Māori staff, Māori policy for NZEI Te Riu Roa but also responding to the needs and wants of others outside our organisation. In practice as a Tiriti based organisation all parties within NZEI Te Riu Roa must work closely together for one purpose based on respect and trust.

Worlds of Education: The Mary Hatwood Futrell Human and Trade Union Rights Award recognises your extraordinary leadership and dedication to transforming New Zealand’s education system so that it recognises and uplifts Māori students and teachers and those from other marginalized groups. What does this award mean to you?

For me, this award is an acknowledgement of my whānau whānui and what we have always worked on during our lives regarding the development of our Iwi (tribal groups) and trying in every way to improve the situation for Māori.

My specific focus has been investigating why educational outcomes for mokopuna Māori never improve, and for Indigenous Peoples in general how much have Unions done to take Indigenous Peoples from survival to being educated. Pasifika students and whānau have similar status to Māori in the education stakes.

As a Co-convenor for Te Rūnanga o ngā Kaimahi Māori o Aotearoa (NZCTU) we share responsibility to ensure that Kaimahi Māori have a voice in all aspects of Aotearoa society. Any project promoted by the Combined Trade Unions should have a Tiriti perspective which is the area that is at risk at the present time.

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

The current education system does not work for New Zealand children and is seen manifested in the experiences of multiple, marginalised, and minority groups. Under Te Tiriti o Waitangi we have an obligation to operationalise a system that recognises and uplifts Māori people and their identity. We believe that a system based on Rangatiratanga centres children with rights to control their own aspirations and destiny and would work for all children through values of mutual benefit to society.

One of the revelations for us in NZEI Te Riu Roa was the acceptance and courage to speak out about our racist education system which was built to ensure that very few Māori succeed. No teachers go to work to deliberately fail the children in their care but for decades the results show this to be the case, so the focus has then fallen on mokopuna Māori.

Worlds of Education: The Futrell Award celebrates 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 marginalised groups?

I joined the union because my father was a union man and he believed in the collective strength of workers. I continued in the union because systems did not favour us as a people, and I wanted that to change. Participation in the union was always about Iwi development at every opportunity which led onto supporting other Indigenous groups in Australia, the Pacific, Asia, America, and Europe.

Being involved Internationally with Indigenous groups brought into question our situation in Aotearoa while trying to align the situation for others and what could change for them.

Attendance at one of the World Indigenous Peoples 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 suggestion was to record the last surviving speaker and to gather the children around to begin their language journey. Several years later we caught up with their amazing success story.

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

We as unionists must accept that racism is a union issue, racism is an education issue and racism is a societal issue. Eliminating racism is an everyday, all day, everywhere mahi (work). It cannot be left to someone else to do. We must all participate.

We have run racism surveys within our organisation as a starting point which highlighted lots of areas to work on. For most Unions this first step can be frightening but it also frees others to have an opinion.

Te Tiriti o Waitangi the founding document for Aotearoa is being brought under scrutiny at the present time so the attention of Ngai Māori is laser focused on the directions being promoted with a general alert on what needs to be done to counteract.