Letters: Guard Pacific's triple star from the shards of strife . . .

Māori activist Te Kooti's flag, which superficially resembles New Zealand's flag.

Teachers at Carlton School, and other schools, may like to tell their students about the flag of Te Kooti, the Māori land activist. Nowadays his flag is not far from their school, in the bowels of the Whanganui District Museum, and on his flag is a triple basket-star design, similar to the triple star design on the Kingite flags of the same era.

These triple stars represented three "baskets" of knowledge poetically brought down from the stars by Tane: Te Kete Aronui, containing the knowledge of our senses, Te Kete Tauri, providing our understanding of the concepts that lie beyond our sensory experiences, and Te Kete Tuatea, giving us our connections with one another and with the past, so that we all live in unity; in other words, everything today's students learn about practical daily living, our science, cultural treasures and civilisation.

Irishman Thomas Bracken wrote our anthem in the era when both his Irish compatriots and Te Kooti were fighting to protect their traditional lands and cultures from total destruction by English capitalists, and his line "Guard Pacific's triple star from the shafts of strife and war" was a call to protect our lands and waters, our technical knowledge, our cultural heritage and our national unity.

The teachers could also point out that "God of Nations" is not necessarily the Christian God, but an anthropomorphism, a poetic figure of speech for the spirit of mutual support that we all give to each other to ensure the survival of our nation and civilisation.
Also the kids need to know that way Aotearoa is pronounced in the song, "Eh Oh Tay Ah Row Oh Ah," is not how it pronounced in everyday speech.

Finally, may I suggest that the song be sung sparingly, as at the Olympic Games, to honour a special accomplishment by some of the students. At other school assemblies alternative stirring Kiwi songs could be used, Pokarekare Ana, Don't Dream It's Over, Nature, etc.

JOHN ARCHER
Ohakune

National anthem

The article regarding the singing of the national anthem at Carlton Primary school in Whanganui (Chronicle, February 22) raises interesting questions about the appropriate path that schools should navigate when addressing concerns around the national anthem.

Given the overtly religious connotation of the lyrics, the national anthem straddles the boundary separating ordinary songs from those that are deemed to have the character of a religious observance such as hymns. Not all parents are comfortable with their child's involuntary conscription into something that goes against their personal convictions, religious or otherwise.

Some parents, for instance those that are Jehovah's Witnesses, object to the anthem on religious grounds. Others object on moral grounds, on the conviction that the anthem is really a treatise on collective self-abasement, given its allusions to dutiful deity boot-licking.

The school's principal, Gaye O'Connor, shows what it is to have a mature and considerate understanding of the diversity that comprises a school community. The text communication to parents at O'Connor's behest, informing them that their child can be opted out should the parents so wish, demonstrated a sound and responsible ethic of parental consultation.

For this gesture she ought to be commended and seen as an exemplary model for other principals to emulate.

JOSHUA BARLEY
Napier

Rubbish still there

Week three, and the dumped rubbish below the pencil artwork on the awa is still there ...
I forget that these bureaucratic decisions take time ... the mayor is probably still consulting with the river entity to decide who is responsible.

In the meantime local and international tourists take photos and send them around the world ...

I'm happy to pick up the rubbish, Mr Mayor. Just give the word!

CALVYN JONKER
Whanganui

Click here to email us a letter.