Maori Education and Knowledge

Maori have always embraced the acquisition of knowledge as a means of maintaining their mana and enhancing their quality of life. Maori society valued knowledge and maintained various institutions for its preservation and its dissemination at different levels. The teaching of essential everyday tasks was a day-to-day activity and individuals learnt through observation and practical experience. Learning took place while tending gardens, gathering seafood, and performing other tasks essential to the welfare of the people.

In a very real sense, Maori were aware of the old adage that knowledge is power.

The concept of "whare wananga"  is very important to the Maori and is related to a mental process of learning, rather than a physical location where learning took place. The Maori believe that when an individual undertook instruction at whare wananga, their classroom was the world they lived in and learning could take place anywhere, at any time. Wananga education focused on developing mental discipline and skill in several different fields of study. Maori education was, and still is, a gradual process of learning. 

 The arrival of Europeans brought new ideas and knowledge such as Christianity, as well as the tools of literacy. Maori quickly engaged with the new ideas and tools and incorporated them within their own knowledge systems. At the same time similar to many other indigenous cultures' history, the colonial influence of Europeans to the Maori people had negative effects in terms of a loss of traditional knowledge and an assimilative attitude.