Five Prayers a Day - And Nobody Asked Your Permission
When cultural activity becomes religious imposition, it's time for New Zealanders to start asking hard questions.
A parent in New Zealand recently discovered that their child had been reciting prayers (karakia) to Māori gods five times a day at a standard state school. Not a kura. Not a Māori immersion school. A regular taxpayer-funded school that is, by law, supposed to be secular.
When that parent tried to have their child excused, they were made to ask - repeatedly - before being granted what should have been an obvious right from the start.
This is the story Steve Gibson brought to my show, and it’s one that is playing out in classrooms, council chambers, and workplaces across New Zealand right now.
Who is Steve Gibson?
Steve Gibson is a first-term elected councillor on the Hastings District Council and a former police officer in both New Zealand and Australia. He is not a firebrand. He is not extreme. He is, by his own description, a ‘centrist’ - someone who grew up in an era when New Zealanders of every background simply got on with each other.
But within weeks of joining his council, he found himself confronted with a NZ flag laid on a gallery floor with the words “please walk on me” written on it - and staff encouraging visitors to do exactly that. Then came powhiri after powhiri - council meetings held at marae clocking up unnecessary council expenses, in the middle of a cost of living crisis. And five karakia a day.
When the school story landed in his inbox, he posted about it. The post hit a chord on both sides of the situation. The trolls came. He was called a racist.
“What the bottom line is for me - if Christ was present what would he do? He wouldn’t partake in prayers to foreign gods, I tell you that right now.” - Steve Gibson
Do we have cultural and religious freedom in New Zealand?
Let’s be honest about what’s actually being asked here. A child - whose parents were given no choice in the matter - is being required to stand, face the class, and recite prayers to Tangaroa (god of the sea), Tāne Māhuta (god of the forest), and other Māori atua (gods). Five times a day.
“It was a standard state school paid by the taxpayer, and we were supposed to be secular. Christians don’t like praying to Māori gods, whether they’re Māori or Pākehā, it doesn’t really matter. And if you don’t know what you’re saying in a language you don’t understand, you don’t know what you’re praying to.” - Steve Gibson
This is not a fringe concern. The New Zealand Bill of Rights guarantees freedom of belief and freedom of expression. International human rights frameworks affirm that parents are the primary educators of their children and have the right to choose the moral and religious environment in which they are raised.
And yet here we are - where asking whether five karakia a day in a state school is appropriate somehow makes you a racist.
It doesn’t. And most New Zealanders know it.
Steve spent his career in the police bending over backwards to support the culture. He learned to speak basic te reo, and was even on maori TV news at a crime scene. He genuinely respected the maori language and culture. Many of us did.
Who is driving tribalism and division in NZ?
The issues Steve and I discuss are not coming from most Māori communities at the grassroots. It’s coming from the top down - through the teachers’ unions, activist organisations, and ultimately through international frameworks like UNDRIP and UN policy that have been deeply woven into our legislation and education curriculum.
When the Minister of Education recently moved to remove some Te Tiriti references from the Education and Training Act, the backlash didn’t come from parents. It came from the unions. The teachers’ unions - who are not parent-led, are not democratically accountable to your family, and operate as activist groups inside our schools.
The jar is being shaken deliberately. As I said to Steve - put 100 red ants and 100 black ants together and they’re fine. Shake the jar and they start fighting each other. The question isn’t ‘who started it?’. It’s: ‘who shook the jar'?’
What you can do
Steve’s advice is simple...
Stand up.
Stop sitting silently in the room while things are recited over you that you don’t believe in. Stop letting activist groups speak for your family’s values. You may feel alone but you’re not. Plenty of us see what’s going on.
Parents - know your rights. No state school can impose a religious practice - including karakia as prayer - without parental consent. In fact, it’s against the law...
Education and Training Act 2020
Parents have a prior right to choose the kind of education that shall be given to their children. Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), Article 26 (3).
The States Parties undertake to have respect for the liberty of parents and, when applicable, legal guardians to ensure the religious and moral education of their children in conformity with their own convictions. - International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), Article 18 (4).
The United Nations, despite its faults, has tools to assist families within the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC). New Zealand ratified the UNCRC in 1993, making it legally binding. These articles are relevant:
Article 5 - States must respect the rights and duties of parents to provide guidance to their children in exercising their rights.
Article 14 - Affirms children’s freedom of thought, conscience and religion, AND the rights and duties of parents to provide direction in the child’s religious formation.
Article 18 - Gives parents primary responsibility for the upbringing and development of their child.
If your child’s school is conducting any religious observance without your consent, you have grounds to object. Find your local councillor, your MP, and make them hear you - calmly, clearly, with evidence.
Follow Steve on Facebook. He is one of the voices being brave enough to say this publicly, and he needs numbers behind him. Share this video, share this article, and start the conversation in your own community.
Because the silent majority has been silent long enough - and if we don’t start speaking now, we may find that we no longer know what our culture is anymore.
Watch my full interview with Steve Gibson. If this resonates with you, please share it widely. Expect trollers but don’t worry about them… they just demonstrate that we’re over the target. They troll because they don’t want us speaking the truth… not because we are wrong.
Penny Marie
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Penny Marie is a New Zealand-based investigative reporter, and founder of Let Kids Be Kids. Please follow, comment, share and support her work. Subscribe to my Substack and YouTube - and on YouTube turn notifications on.
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Good on you Steve. Most parents are probably too afraid to speak up as they would be called racist. Fantastic that you are bringing it to the attention of parents
I was just talking about this three weeks ago to a to a secondary school teacher who is a good friend of mine. He teaches music and the Maori language at a Secondary school in Invercargill. He asked me what I thought of people praying to the 'old Maori Gods.' He knows I am a non-denominational Christian, and part Cook Island Maori. I told him a true story about when the Christian missionaries first arrived on the island of Mangaia. They murdered the first man to step on the island and 'they' rejected Christianity, the ship left and went on to convert many other islands to Christianity. Not long after the ship left there was a sudden disease outbreak and 70 local people died. The islanders of Mangaia got word to the ship and invited them back. When they eventually returned, the island largely accepted Christianity. However, some people who were superstitious went and hid many of their idols deep in caves just in case this new God wasn't loyal. The island now realises many of these 'old gods' represented by the carved idols of wood and stone are actually the same old gods all cultures worshipped in the past. They know these idols represent the 'old fallen gods,' and the demonic entities of old. I asked my Maori friend, do you think when you call upon your own ancestors, do you actually believe you are conjuring up the spirits of your old ancestors? ...or are those spirits something else? He took a long pause before he replied, eventually saying in a solemn tone, 'they are something else' Many staunch Maori still know the truth about who 'the gods of old' represent. The fallen ones of old.