Abstract:
A great deal has been written about Maori education in New Zealand but very little of this writing has been concerned primarily with the education of Maori women and girls. This is surprising given the widespread concern during the past three decades with the under-achievement of Maori females. The writer therefore decided to investigate the way in which European educational provisions for Maori women and girls have been historically constructed and to examine the impact of European schooling on Maori females from the time English missionaries arrived in New Zealand until the beginning of World War II.
Literature on Maori schooling and the Maori in general was reviewed. Early eye-witness accounts, missionary journals, letters and associated documents, government reports, published and unpublished documents, newspapers, school log books, autobiographies, books and dissertations were examined. A small number of informal interviews also were carried out.
Results from the study showed that in spite of education for women and girls being considered by many Europeans during this period to be of less importance than that of men and boys formal schooling for Maori females featured quite prominently in European educational efforts for the Maori race. However, the provisions made by Europeans were neither bold nor innovative but reflected what they considered was appropriate in the light of their own educational experience and social heritage, and by events overseas. Overall, schooling for Maori women and girls was regarded by Europeans as a means of securing the salvation, either religious or secular, of the Maori race. Thus the importance given by government policy makers after 1840 to English and practical home-making skills ultimately was intended to Europeanise the Maori girls, to raise the standard of living and to confirm them as members of a rural community.
Significant numbers of Maori girls availed themselves of the opportunities that were provided both in the missionaries schools and later in state Maori primary schools and board schools. The influence of the latter was considerable and needs to be better understood. In the primary schools the girls' level of achievement, as measured by the number receiving government scholarships for more advanced schooling, was consistently higher than for Maori boys. However, the emphasis on domesticity and motherhood by the Education Department, particularly after 1900 in relation to secondary schooling, indicated that officials not only thought it unnecessary for girls to achieve academically when compared with boys but also made it more difficult for them to do so.