Māori history: Ready-made teacher support material 

A study of your local area. Exploring, sharing, connecting, and enhancing the place where your ākonga live.

• L1 Understand how places in New Zealand are significant for individuals and groups.  
• L2 Understand how places influence people and how people influence places.  

This unit sits alongside Te Takanga o te Wā theme, Mana Whenua.

Discuss your local community with your class. Record ideas about important landmarks or people. Make a timeline of how places and people have changed over time.  

Inquiry questions could include: 

• In what ways has the land been used?  
• Who made changes?  
• What effects did the changes have on the people living in the area?  

Compare maps and aerial photographs to see what has changed over time. Use Google Earth for recent images.  

• View aerial photographs from 1935 on The V.C. Browne and Son Aerial Photograph Collection. 
• View older (non-aerial) photos in your local library, the National Libraries, or the New Zealand Archives.  

Use old records to track changes in ownership, and potential land use issues. You can use The New Zealand Official Yearbooks.   

This information helps you give ākonga insight into historical information like land use, occupations, living and family situations, and the changing ethnic profile of your local area.  

Take a visit  

Take the ākonga to visit places in your local area of historical significance to Māori. This takes history out of books and makes it more alive, putting classroom learning into a real-life context. Ask local Māori and historical experts to show you around. Let the ākonga explore the area thoroughly—ask questions, take photos, sketch, video, and role play.

Create a tour  

Create a tour of a local historical landmark to make your class knowledge accessible to the rest of the local community. This could be a podcast or a virtual web site tour. Include a basic map, instructions about how to get there, and a walking plan for navigating the site. Describe the significance of the site for Māori and the local community, both historically and in the present day. Include old photos. Interview local people to find out more about place names and local history.  

Inquiry questions could include: 

• What role did this landmark play in the economic or social life of the community?  
• What was happening in history when it was built or first used?  

Now what?  

As a conclusion to knowledge gathering, ākonga can take part in some social action that shows they can create history in their local area too. This may be:  

• creating a space to honour a local leader or cleaning up a landmark  
• lobbying local politicians for recognition for a place that was a part of important Māori history 
• creating a resource for the school or local library that honours a leader from the past. 

Photographs give us a window into other people’s lives and histories. Ākonga of any level can use images to see into the past and make comparisons with their own lives.  

Social sciences: Levels 1–2 Places and environment and Identity, culture and organisation.  

Ākonga will gain skills, knowledge, and experiences to:  

• L1 understand how the past is important to people 
• L2 understand how time and change affect people’s lives.

This unit sits alongside Te Takanga o te Wā connected themes, Mātauranga and Whakapapa. 

Notes for teachers  

Illustrations or photographs can be used to introduce new concepts and add to the knowledge ākonga already have about a place or other people’s lives. They can be prompts for ākonga to share, discuss, and question their ideas. Younger ākonga will often view pictures uncritically. You may need to remind them to look beyond the image to the intended (or sometimes unintended) message.  

Learning outcomes  

When using photographs to enhance learning in Māori history, ākonga can be expected to:  

• compare and contrast material from different time periods 
• explain their choices and express their ideas 
• make simple inferences from what they see 
• categorise material according to given criteria. 

Remember the picture  

Give ākonga a picture to study for two minutes to remember details. Have ākonga turn the picture over and ask about the details they can remember from the picture. This is a good exercise for learning two separate skills. The first is to focus attention on pictorial sources with lots of detail. The second is the concept of describing a picture and inferring information from it.  

Photo disclosure  

Use blank paper to cover part of each photo (or use a digital option). The part of the photograph that can be seen will give a clue, but not the whole story. Lay the photographs around the classroom, with a large piece of paper and a pen next to each one. In pairs or small groups, have ākonga view each photo, then use the accompanying piece of paper to record what they think the photo as a whole might show. Questions to guide ākonga throughout this process could include:  

• What do you think the people in this photo are doing?  
• Where do you think this is?  
• When do you think this photo was taken?  
• What things in the photo give you clues about what the whole picture may show?  

Next, look at the uncovered photographs as a class. Discuss the learners’ ideas and add the following questions: 

• What are some of the things that are the same or nearly the same in all the photos?  
• Are any of the things you see happening here familiar?  
• What do you think these people might be thinking or feeling? What makes you think that? 
• Do you think this photo is from New Zealand? Why?  

Group and categorise photos using the learners’ criteria and display them for future reference.  

Hide and seek  

Let ākonga view illustrations or photographs and ask them to imagine ‘hiding’ somewhere in the photo. Attempt to find each of the ākonga in the image, while asking a variety of sensory questions, such as: 

• What do you see from your location? 
• What do you hear? 

Different ākonga can ‘hide’ in the same photo but in a different spot so that thinking and responses can be compared. The responses can be recorded with the photographs for a visual record of their thinking. This encourages historical thinking. It allows the ākonga to give a justified analysis and deepen their understanding of the events from any given time or place.  

Time comparison  

Ākonga can use the photographs to gain insight into what life was like when the photograph was taken. Statements like "It’s black and white" or "They aren’t wearing the same clothes as us" can serve as a starting point for discussion. If you use images from a variety of points in history, ākonga can try to put them in order, justifying their choices, and complete the time comparison activity. If you have concentrated on one period or event, the time comparison activity will still work.  

Discuss with the ākonga how the photos have been helpful to their learning. Individually or in groups, have ākonga replicate the photos. This may be taking photographs of an environment from the same angles as before, replicating poses or groupings but with modern dress and implements. Or the ākonga may take photographs of their lives now to record their place in history. Discuss how this could help learners in the future learn about what time is like now. 

These photographs can be displayed as a comparison and then included in a school archive for future history classes. 

Help your ākonga with interesting activities: 

• Create a movie in your head.
• "Hot seat" a historical character.
• Become a building inspector by examining the architecture of your area.
• Meet the leader who is going to inspire your learning about history.

Drama is motivating, and these learning experiences will hook in ākonga, especially those in lower and middle primary. 

Social sciences: Levels 1–2 Places and environment and Identity, culture, and organisation.  

Ākonga will gain skills, knowledge, and experiences to:  

• L1 Understand how the past is important to people 
• L2 Understand how time and change affect people’s lives. 

This unit sits alongside Te Takanga o te Wā themes, Mātauranga and Te Hekenga Nui.  

Notes for teachers  

Using drama in the classroom is a great way to enhance interest and connect with younger learners’ natural sense of play. If younger ākonga are unable to interpret complicated texts, drama can be a way to learn important information. Stories told through drama can teach new concepts, reinforce those previously encountered, and provide ākonga with shared prior knowledge. 

Learning outcomes  

When participating in drama to enhance learning in Māori history, ākonga can be expected to: 

• ask probing questions to elicit more information
• share their thinking in a group discussion
• make observations and draw conclusions
• participate and contribute to learning experiences to show their understanding of Māori history. 

A movie in your head 

You are going to describe a historical event that is relevant to your class. You may want to write your own script or adapt a historical account.  

Start with an introduction to set the scene with your class:  

• "Close your eyes and listen to a story. It’s a special story because it happened right where we live. 
• While I read the story, I will ask questions like, "What can you see?" or "What can you hear?" 
• You don’t need to answer out loud. You just need to think about it in your head and keep your eyes shut. That means that you will use your imagination, and your story will be different from everyone else’s.  
• Now, close your eyes and listen..."  

Continue with your story, trying to be as descriptive as you can. For example:  

• "You are now standing in a bush, surrounded by tall trees. Tuatara are scuttling through the undergrowth, and pīwakawaka chirp as they flit from tree to tree. Look around you, what else can you see? Can you see any people, perhaps a mountain or even a giant feathered bird, taller than any human? " 

There are lots of possible follow up activities for this exercise. Ākonga can list the things they imagined. They can draw or paint what is in their heads and make a class book, which they could then make into a movie. As with most narratives, this is work that creates a shared experience for the ākonga. It is presented in a familiar format that they can refer to when needed.  

Hot seat  

Choose a person who took part in a historical event in your area. The person could be a leader, child, or warrior, depending on which perspective you want to portray. Take on the character you have chosen and tell the ākonga a story about that person’s life and the situation they were in (for example, a hapū, whānau, or war party).

Ākonga can ask questions of that character about their involvement in historical events or decisions. Try to get ākonga to focus not just on the facts but also on personal reactions and feelings. This can be revisited when they want to know more.  

Building inspector  

Visit a landmark or building. Encourage ākonga to interpret the landmark—its age, who used it, why it is there, what the distinguishing features are, and why it is important. Have ākonga depict some of the main features of the landmark or building using their bodies in a freeze frame. See if other ākonga can guess what is being represented and give a fact that they know about it.  

As follow up to the visit, continue to role play what life was like when the landmark was built or when people first lived there. Ask the ākonga questions to guide their thinking:  

• What do you think life was like there 100 years ago? 
• What kinds of jobs did people do? 

Have groups freeze frame their ideas and ask other groups to guess. For example, if the ākonga identify that there were horses and carts at this time, ask, "Can you create a scene of people looking after the horses and carts?"  

Meet the leader  

Younger ākonga find fictional characters believable and can become involved with them. As with the hot seat activity, choose a person who was involved in a historical event, but do not tell the ākonga about them. Then construct a landmark in your classroom with the ākonga. This could be something from early Māori history, like a pātaka from a fortified pā, or it could be a replica of a local landmark. Whatever you choose needs to be representative of the time and place that you are focusing on. Make it big enough that the ākonga have a physical feeling of both its importance to your area and its presence in the classroom.  

Next, find or make objects to fit in and around your structure that will give clues about what it is and what place in history it has. These could be everyday implements of the time, photographs, or special taonga or heirlooms. Place these in or around your structure at random times throughout your unit of study. Include a letter, addressed to your class written by your chosen character. All of these objects and letters will be clues that go together to form a whole picture. The ākonga can write back to the character with questions or thoughts, and a correspondence can begin.  

The element of surprise and fantasy will engage ākonga. They will want to see if a new object has appeared and will want to know what the letters say. 

Use music and visual arts to teach Māori history at any level. This unit includes: 

• "Where are you from?" project that links self-portrait to landscape and location 
• Making community connections by creating art for a public space 
• Exploring, performing, and composing waiata and haka 

Social sciences Levels 1–2: Places and environment and Identity, culture, and organisation  

Ākonga will gain skills, knowledge, and experiences to: 

• L1 Understand how the cultures of people in Aotearoa New Zealand are expressed in learners’ daily lives
• L2 Understand how the status of Māori as tangata whenua is significant for communities in Aotearoa New Zealand. 
• Understand how cultural practices reflect and express people’s customs, traditions, and values.

This unit sits alongside Te Takanga o te Wā connected themes, Te Hekenga Nui, Mana Whenua and Whakapapa. 

Notes for teachers  

Art is a way for young ākonga to visually express their historical understandings. It is cross-cultural, kinaesthetic, and familiar. Strong connections can be made to Māori history through both traditional and contemporary art that expresses Tikanga Māori. Art is accessible and easily displayed, which makes it a great vehicle for sharing learning with the wider school community.  

Learning outcomes  

When participating in art and music to enhance learning in Māori history, ākonga can be expected to:  

• compare and contrast material from different time periods.  
• explain their choices and express their ideas.  
• make simple inferences from what they see.  
• use the conventions and techniques of visual art and music to express concepts of Māori history.  

Where are you from?  

Whakamīharo Lindauer Online Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tamāriki This art project examines stories of migration and the learners’ sense of where they belong. It links a self-portrait to landscape and location, allowing ākonga to look at their own migration stories. Famous portrait painters like Goldie and Lindauer added to early historical records with their portraits of Māori.  

For more contemporary portraits, a website like New Zealand Portrait Gallery Te Pūkenga Whakaata will give your ākonga examples of different ways of portraying the people of New Zealand. Ākonga can discuss why the subjects had their portraits painted, what distinguishing features they can see, and what information the portrait gives about its subject.  

Ākonga can complete a self-portrait that includes images of their family history and the place where they belong. Ākonga should also spend time talking to their whānau about their migration stories and then: 

• find and print a map of the place from which their family originally came.
• integrate the map into the self-portraits, linking it to their identity.  
• paint or draw aspects of their local area into the portrait background to show the land to which they also belong.  

You can find an example of how this technique is used on Art Inspired. 

Construct a family tree  

Ākonga can interview grandparents, parents, or other whānau members and complete a family tree or family timeline. It can be presented using art techniques (print, collage, sculpture), and the final product can be shared with the school community. Some family trees may be able to trace ancestors through many generations and include migration stories. Events in Māori history can also be added to the trees to show how family history events fit into a larger national context.  

Community connection  

Think about what you could do to share your learning around local Māori history with the local community. This should be done in a way that pays tribute to an event, land, or people. It may be appropriate for your ākonga to create a public artwork, such as a mural, a mosaic, a sculpture, or a series of painted tiles. Publicly sharing an aspect of local Māori history is beneficial not just for the local community but for visitors, too.

Investigate a building  

Through exploring local Māori history, ākonga will discover how their local area has changed over time. This includes not just the land itself but also buildings that have been erected on it. Buildings give us an idea of who has lived in a place, how they lived their lives, and what was important to them.  

Ākonga can study old maps or photographs. A local historian or town planner may be able to visit the classroom to talk about the architectural history of your town. They may have information about why specific buildings were erected and for whom, and why some structures no longer exist.  

Ākonga can walk around the area, estimating the age and function of buildings. Get them to examine the types of building materials, levels of damage or preservation, function, and craftsmanship. Are there any clues to the story of the building (e.g., dates or carvings)?  

Following the investigation, have ākonga construct a 3D timeline of your area. Use wood scraps, cardboard, or any other recyclable material. Build the same part of your local area over three time periods – and maybe add in a futuristic one as well. The House that Jack Built, by Gavin Bishop, is a good introduction to how buildings and land use change over time.  

Flags  

Flags are a simple but effective way to teach ākonga visually about history. Some ākonga may be aware of how our current flag represents colonial history. Fewer, however, may know of the flag of the United Tribes of New Zealand, which had colonial roots but was voted for by some northern Māori. 

• Flags of New Zealand – United Tribes flag  

The flag of the Māori independence movement, Tino Rangatiratanga, is not officially recognised by the government as a national flag. But it is seen frequently and is well recognised. It is potentially the only non-colonial flag that a large number of ākonga will have seen. 

• Flags of New Zealand – The national Māori flag   

Talk to your ākonga about flags and the examples that reflect times in New Zealand history. They can design a flag that best depicts the people, places, and history of your local area. Using fabric paints, ākonga could paint a flag to hang from the school flagpole.  

Waiata and haka  

Explore and perform waiata and haka that are local to your area. They may:  

• describe historical events or leaders  
• have inspired people to take action  
• describe an aspect of the landscape or a myth or legend  
• have been composed by a leader from local iwi.  

This activity allows ākonga to use te reo Māori in a musical context helping to make the language and history more accessible for ākonga. Try approaching your local high school for support; often, they have kapa haka groups that can help teach waiata to younger students. Or they may be happy to perform to a younger audience for practice.  

• For waiata related to times in New Zealand history, see Song Resources for School Projects & Plays  

Ākonga may want to compose their own music. Listen to a song like Parihaka, sung by Herbs. Ask: 

• How do you feel when you listen to it?  
• What story does it tell you?  

Ākonga could then write a short song or rap that tells a historical story. 

Thinking historically requires ākonga to interpret a historical event and to place that event in time and context. 

• L1 Understand how the past is important to people.  
• L2 Understand how time and change affect people’s lives.  

This unit sits alongside Te Takanga o te Wā connected themes, Te Hekenga Nui, Mana Whenua, and Whakapapa.

Notes for teachers  

Sometimes ākonga, especially younger ones, can struggle to understand the order of events. This can affect their thinking around continuity, change, and cause and effect.  

• You may have to teach them the skills of using timelines and understanding chronology before the main history is explored.  
• You may choose to look at a certain period with your class or choose an event that affected your local community. Constructing a timeline with the ākonga gives them a visual prompt.  
• You may choose to have something on the wall or a hanging string where events are pegged. Break down one event into a timeline of smaller events. Or make a timeline after a speaker has visited, or the class has seen a local landmark, to track the story.  

Defining chronology  

Ordering historical events means being able to understand:  

• Descriptive vocabulary: words like before, after, a long time ago, a very long time ago, ancient, old, new, decade, century, modern, during, in between, recent
• Conceptual vocabulary: words like change, continuity, sequence, duration, and period
• How people and things change.  

The way to order events:  

• sequencing time  
• measuring in months and years  
• ordering numbers up to four digits  
• knowing that the numbers get bigger the closer we get to the present day.  

Time machine game  

Tell the ākonga your classroom is a time machine, and you can go anywhere in time. Tell them you are going back to a recent date (e.g., Christmas last year). Ask ākonga what they can see, hear, and smell. Then ask, "Where else could we go?" See if they can choose a different historical time and ask the same questions. This can be repeated as often as you like. The ākonga could choose the period, or you could guide them towards something you are planning for them to find out more about. Once you have taught more content about that event, get into your time machine and go back. What do you now see, hear, and smell? This is an excellent way of assessing the learners’ existing knowledge of events, vocabulary, and understanding of chronology.  

Keep it physical  

When younger ākonga are first learning about timelines, get them to sequence events or objects physically. Here are some ideas for doing this:  

Categorise objects into old and new or put them in a line from oldest to newest.  

Get the class to stand in a line according to the timeline of their birthdays.  

Walk along a physical timeline made from a bench or masking tape on the classroom floor. As you or the ākonga walk along it, verbalise what is happening, for example, "See me going back in time", or "This is the beginning of the timeline, so this is now." 

Write events from the life of your class or school on paper for ākonga to arrange in order.

• some ākonga put themselves on the timeline, hold the papers, and read events aloud  
• the rest of the class checks that the ordering is correct, and the ākonga standing on the timeline read the events aloud again  
• keep commenting as the ākonga read to reinforce the language and concepts of chronology.  

Sort photos of the local area into past and present and discuss why they are sorted that way.  

• Give small groups of ākonga a picture of an historical event. Ask each group to put their pictures in order on a timeline. See if they can work out as a class which order of events is correct and what the clues were that led them there.

Use the lives of the ākonga  

Show the ākonga how to sequence the events of a day onto a timeline, and then the year.

• Compare the lives of the ākonga to a timeline of Māori history. Ask, "You’d have been alive then, wouldn’t you?", "Why not?"  
• Compare the teacher’s or parents’ timelines with the ākonga.  
• Get ākonga to bring in photographs of themselves as a baby and a recent photograph.  
  • Discuss the differences between them as babies and the age they are now.  
  • Look at the things they did as babies—crawling, walking, and so on—and how they have changed over time.  
  • Ask, "How have your toys, books, interests, and skills changed over time?" 

These resources align with the social sciences strand Place and Environment for years 7–8 ākonga in English-medium schools working at Level 3–4. It is intended that ākonga will gain an understanding of: 

• how and why people view and use places and environments differently 
• the impact cross-cultural interaction has on cultures and societies 
• why and how cultural values and beliefs contribute to how people view and use places.  

The student resources and maps are available for schools to order from Down the Back of the Chair:  

• Kāwhia Harbour (student book) ISBN 978-1-77550-263-0 
• Kāwhia Harbour (map) ISBN 978-1-77550-367-5  
• Napier Inner Harbour (student book) ISBN 978-1-77550-262-3 
• Napier Inner Harbour (map) ISBN 978-1-77550-366-8  

Napier Inner Harbour and Kāwhia Harbour Maps 

See Materials that come with this resource to download:

• Napier Inner Harbour (.pdf)
• Kāwhia Harbour (.pdf)

Teacher support material 

See Materials that come with this resource to download:

• Place and Environment Teacher Support Material (.pdf) 
• Napier Inner Harbour and Kāwhia Harbour TSM(.pdf)

This resource is designed to be used with Te Takanga o te Wā – Māori History: Guidelines for Years 1–8. It explores how concepts of whakapapa, tūrangawaewae, mana motuhake, kaitiakitanga, and whanaungatanga are woven into the history of Kāwhia Harbour and Napier Inner Harbour. The resource considers why these concepts are important and includes teaching and learning ideas.  

What do parents think? 

A summary of thoughts from parents of children in English-medium schools.  

See Materials that come with this resource to download:

• What do parents think (.pdf)