He Ao Tūhono: A Comparative Look at Indigenous Early Learning Rights

Abstract

This article examines Indigenous children’s rights and early learning through a framework grounded in Te Tiriti o Waitangi, mātauranga Māori, and international Indigenous education policy. Drawing on the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, it argues that children’s rights cannot be meaningfully realised without Indigenous authority over language, culture, and education. Situated in Aotearoa New Zealand, the paper critiques the dominance of Western developmental models in early learning and positions Māori concepts of relationality and kaitiakitanga (guardianship) as foundational to rights-based pedagogy. Comparative examples from Hawai‘i, Canada, and Australia illustrate how Indigenous-led governance and language frameworks operationalise children’s rights through community authority rather than institutional inclusion. The article concludes that genuine transformation requires structural change beyond symbolic recognition, including shared governance with Indigenous communities, mandated professional learning in Indigenous pedagogies, and policy frameworks that centre Indigenous knowledge systems as foundational rather than supplementary.