Find out about your school’s relationship with the local hapū and iwi before beginning this activity set. See the Productive partnerships with whānau, hapū, and iwi section in the Leading Local Curriculum Guide Part 1 for more information on growing this relationship. Ideally the activities will incorporate these relationships, however many will still be meaningful without this connection.  

As part of your preparation for this teaching and learning you need to have some understanding of the iwi and hapū histories of your area. Here are some tools to help: 

• Te Kāhui Māngai map: use this website to identify the hapū and iwi that hold authority in the rohe of your school. Visit the websites of these iwi to identify their maunga, awa and/or moana, and key ancestors. 
• Te Ara iwi articles: use these articles to find more information about the hapū and iwi that hold authority in your rohe.  
• Broadening teachers' perspectives: watch this video to learn about the importance of teachers working with iwi and local communities to develop an understanding of the differing perspectives on local history. 
• Ngā Uruora: listen to these audio episodes on the impact of colonisation on the Hauraki Plains, Wellington, Taranaki, Manawatu, and the West Coast. 

You may want to review the activities you choose to use with your class to identify vocabulary that may need to be pre-taught beforehand. Create a word wall including these words that you can add to throughout the learning experience. 

How do people interact with places and resources in our local environment? How has this changed over time? 

• Display this Te Kāhui Māngai map and support ākonga to identify the rohe that their school is in. Use the website to identify which iwi and/or hapū have authority in their rohe, noting that some places in Aotearoa have overlapping authorities. Encourage ākonga to share any connections they have to these iwi and hapū. Keep in mind that some ākonga Māori have a strong sense of connection to their iwi while others can be embarrassed about not knowing. 
• Note that the hapū and iwi of your place may have many histories of this rohe, and this has been their home for hundreds of years. Keep in mind that the hapū and iwi of your rohe may have changed over time due to conflicts with other iwi, and those conflicts can still cause mamae. 
• Discuss how your school acknowledges or give mihi to the hapū and iwi of this place. Acknowledge any of your ākonga who whakapapa to these iwi. 
• Ask ākonga to turn-and-talk to the person next to them about key natural landscape features of your area. As a class, identify the maunga, awa, moana, and key ancestor of iwi that have authority in your rohe.  
• Have students close their eyes. Ask them to think of their favourite outdoor place in your area. What can they see? What can they smell? What can they hear? What can they feel?  
• Ask ākonga to bring in something from their favourite place, for example a small stone from a path they like to walk. Have ākonga work in pairs to share their item and sense memories of their favourite place. Remind ākonga that there are some things you are not allowed to remove from their environment. For example, don’t take whole plants from public land. Consider using a karakia to acknowledge what you are taking. If what you are taking is native to Aotearoa New Zealand, a karakia is required. This can be a specific Māori karakia or you can just use your own kupu and speak from the heart about your gratitude and acknowledgement of the item. 
• Explain that people have different types of purpose for interacting with specific places: personal, social, cultural, economic, and spiritual. As a class, come up with a definition and example of each type of purpose. You may want to provide ākonga with different places to think about interacting with (a farm, a river, a mine, a park). 
• Take ākonga on a trip to experience a significant local place, being mindful and respectful of important Māori sites and tikanga for them.  
  • If possible, ask a knowledgeable local guide to accompany learners, to help bring the whenua to life.  
  • Ask ākonga to sit in the stillness, and to record all that they can see, touch, hear, and smell, taking note of human impact and presence. 
• Using the place, you visited or another, discuss what different people do in the significant place. For example: bushwalks, trail-riding, tree planting, bird monitoring, and dawn ceremonies on the local maunga.  
  • Ask: What are the purposes of their actions? Are they similar or different?  
  • Remind ākonga that people have different types of purpose for interacting with specific places: personal, social, cultural, economic, and spiritual. Give an example of each, and then ask ākonga to identify a possible type of purpose for each activity they’ve thought of. 
  • Create a graphic organiser or graph to show responses. The table below provides an example model. 

• Ask ākonga to work in groups to find information about local histories relating to a significant place. Provide a range of resources such as: 
  • Local museum websites (or visits) 
  • Local history links: A useful collection of local history resources, collated by NZ History and organised according to geographical region  
  • DigitalNZ: search for useful images of your rohe that show how it has changed over time. (Filtering images by date is helpful if there are a lot of images to choose from.)  
  • Te Ara iwi articles: use these to find more information about the hapū and iwi that hold authority in your rohe 
  • Te Papa: search for your rohe or iwi  

For the history they are investigating, have ākonga identify: 

• Who was involved in this history of your rohe? 
• What happened? 
• What were the effects for the people involved at the time? 
• What are the effects for us now? 
• Where did you get the information about this history? Who got to tell their story? Who else might have been part of this history that didn’t get to tell their story? 

• If appropriate to your relationship, support ākonga to make connections with local hapū and iwi, including visiting local marae to see how local histories are represented in tāniko, kōwhaiwhai, and whakairo within the wharenui. 
• Provide an opportunity for ākonga to gather information and resources relating to their area and present that information back to the community in a meaningful way. See the Tips for engaging with community section of the Pūtātara home page for specific support. 
• If you are publicly retelling local histories, make sure students acknowledge the groups involved, engaging with them if possible. You may also need to think carefully about who may find these histories challenging to hear unexpectedly and consider content warnings. 

Support ākonga to come up with a presentation idea. Some examples are: 

• Ākonga developing a common set of interview questions and gathering data from whānau, community members, local elders, and hapū about how the land in their area has changed because of people’s actions. They gather historic images of landmarks in their area to display alongside these interviews, with photos of the same places today.  
• Ākonga using maps and photos from different times in the history of your area to create a stop-motion clip that illustrates changes in settlement, flora, and fauna. They could showcase this at a community or school event and gather community perspectives on what’s happened, as well as how things might develop in the future.  
• Ākonga creating a video project, capturing different ways that people interact with a significant place, including personal, social, cultural, economic, and spiritual ways.  
• Ākonga drafting five questions based on their research about their rohe’s histories. They could then video a range of community members responding to these questions and edit the responses to group the answers to each question together thematically. This video can be shared online or used as a class resource for discussing “different ways people interact with place”. 
• Ākonga planning an art installation aimed at raising the critical consciousness of the school community or local neighbourhood about what has been and who has gone before. This can involve enlarging parts of a historic photo or painting and ‘projecting’ it into the community via a display or mural. It can also include quotes from interviews learners have conducted and historical records they have discovered. 

Ask ākonga to reflect on their action. What impact did it have on the school? What impact did it have on them personally? What strengths and limitations did it have? 

Identify historical events involving people from two or more cultures (for example, Māori, Pākehā, Sāmoan etc.) for ākonga to investigate. If possible, find events that have taken place in or with significant relevance to your rohe or communities. Some examples are: 

• The Ventnor Story: Account of the Aotearoa New Zealand Chinese Association’s visit to the Hokianga region to honour their ancestors, whose bones washed ashore after the sinking of the SS Ventnor 
• Parihaka:Story set at Parihaka, prior to the government raid of 1881, based on oral history 
• The protests of the Citizenship (Western Sāmoa) Act 1982: Te Ara audio extract providing a Western Sāmoan perspective on the act.  

If possible, identify people connected to the cultures who may be able to speak to your class about the event or the cultural perspectives involved. 

If Māori were involved in the event, ensure you include the perspective of the hapū or iwi of your rohe in your inquiry. Find out about your school’s relationships with the local hapū and iwi before beginning this activity set. See the Productive partnerships with whānau, hapū, and iwi section in the Leading Local Curriculum Guide Part 1 for more information on growing these relationships.  

You may want to review the activities you choose to use with your class to identify vocabulary that may need to be pre-taught beforehand. Create a word wall including these words that you can add to throughout the learning experience. 

Prepare resources to explain or remind ākonga of the difference between primary and secondary sources. The following resources may be helpful: 

• National Library guidance for teachers on primary and secondary sources
• NZ history teacher toolbox section on historical sources  
• Britannica Kids guidance for ākonga on primary sources. 

• How can people’s connection to place sustain and evolve their cultures and identities? 
• How can people’s connections to places generate cooperation or lead to disputes over rights and responsibilities? What consequences could this have? 

• Discuss how the ways in which people connect to places can be similar or different between individuals and across cultures. 
• Ask ākonga to turn-and-talk to the person next to them about a place where they feel a strong sense of connection or belonging, using all their senses to describe the place. How would you draw your connection to that place? What colours would you use?  
• If ākonga are familiar with the Te Whare Tapa Whā model, ask how each taha supports their connection to the place they have identified. 
• In the same pairs, ask ākonga to compare and contrast the places they chose. What was similar and what was different about the places? What was similar and what was different about the reasons they felt a connection to it? 
• Support ākonga to individually investigate another country they have a particular interest in. Encourage them to explore landscapes, major cities, and traditional and contemporary culture. Provide them with relevant resources; the Britannica website may be a good place to start for an overview. 
• Ask them to consider:  
  • What is it about the country that they find especially interesting? What parts of its culture do they identify with, and what parts feel foreign to them? 
  • What places are important in that country’s culture? What is the people of that country’s relationship with the land? What do they value most? 
• Ask ākonga to work in groups to investigate a historical event in Aotearoa New Zealand that involved people from two or more cultures. Explain or remind ākonga of the difference between primary and secondary sources, and request that they find at least two of each. 
• Provide them with a range of resources such as: 
  • Local museum websites (or visits) 
  • Local history links: A useful collection of local history resources, collated by NZ History and organised according to geographical region. 
• For the event they are investigating, have ākonga identify: 
  • What actually happened? Consider who was involved (this could be individuals or groups), where it happened (key locations) and when (key dates). 
  • How do we know what happened? Who told the histories? 
  • Did the people or groups involved cooperate or disagree? 
  • What place or resource was involved in the event? What connection did each person or group have to it? What did each person or group want to happen?  
  • What do you think each group thought about what happened? 

• Select one of the following based on which learning activities you completed. 
  • Compare cultures: Group ākonga based on which countries they chose. Consider inviting people with connections to the cultures or countries to speak to the group, to expand the inquiry into how people maintain connections with that culture. Have each group draw up their findings and share them on a collective digital board or a display board in the classroom. 
  • Compare important places in a mural: Suggest ākonga use their identified important places as the basis for designing a collective mural in part of your school. What are the similarities in their places? What themes and colours recur in their descriptions of connections? Ākonga could work in collaboration with a local artist to plan their mural. They may wish to draw on poetry about the connections we have with the natural world, such as those by Hone Tūwhare, Mary Oliver, or John Pule. 
  • Compare perspectives with postcards: Ask ākonga to adopt the personalities of historical people connected to the event they researched. They could write imaginary postcards back and forth between their characters to express their differing views on the event. 
• Ask ākonga to reflect on their comparison activity using a ‘3-2-1 lift off’ technique. Have ākonga present to the class three things they learned, two things they still want to learn, and one question they now have. Ākonga may wish to interchange the numbers, or to create their own evaluative 3-2-1 charts with different categories. 
• Ask ākonga to reflect on the effectiveness of how they communicated their comparisons. What were the strengths and limitations of the communication method and process? 

Find out about your school’s relationship with the local hapū and iwi before beginning this activity set. See the Productive partnerships with whānau, hapū, and iwi section in the Leading Local Curriculum Guide Part 1 for more information on growing this relationship. Ideally the activities will incorporate these relationships, however many will still be meaningful without this connection.  

As part of your preparation for this teaching and learning you need to be prepared to have some conversations with ākonga about mental health. The following resource may be helpful: 

• Mental health education: A guide for teachers, leaders and school boards: A Ministry of Education resource that supports schools to create teaching and learning programmes, and whole of school approaches to mental health education. 

You may also choose to connect with the Health teacher/s about what they have done or plan to do in relation to mental health, and the school counsellors about what resources are available for ākonga at your school. 

Identify environmental actions being taken in your rohe to protect natural environments, especially those that are using rāhui.  

You may want to review the activities you choose to use with your class to identify vocabulary that may need to be pre-taught beforehand. Create a word wall including these words that you can add to throughout the learning experience. 

• How can connection to green spaces generate cooperation or lead to disputes about rights and responsibilities? 

• How has mātauranga Māori been used to care for and transform te taiao?

• Discuss: What is mental health? This video (aimed at ākonga aged between 11 and 14) that describes mental health may be a helpful starting point. 
• Take ākonga outside to a green area – the school field, local park, or nearby ngahere. Before you go, ask ākonga how their mind feels. Ask them to write it down. 
• Walk as a class around the green area, paying attention to what they can see, smell, hear, feel, and taste. You may give them a prompt to focus on each sense one at a time. 
• On returning to class, ask them if they notice any difference in how their mind and mood feels. Give them five minutes of quiet time (silence or meditative music) to reflect on this, either journalling or thinking. 
• Facilitate a discussion: Does everyone in Aotearoa New Zealand have easy access to a green space? If not, why not? What are the barriers? What might the consequences be for them? 
• Divide ākonga into groups for a jigsaw activity. Assign each group one of the following resources related to the effect of nature on mental health, and ask them to identify the key points: 
  • Walking in nature: A video on a Stanford-led study on how walking in nature can lead to a lower risk of depression  
  • How nature benefits mental health: An article from Mind UK on the how green spaces can improve mental and physical mental health 
  • Let nature in: An article connecting the mauri of living things with our mental health 
  • Japanese forest bathing: A short book excerpt describing the practice and benefits of forest bathing. 
• Ask ākonga to focus on the Let nature in article. Encourage them to reread the article, then as a class discuss and describe examples of the mauri of natural resources in NZ or around the world that are not being cared for. Ask:  
  • What is happening to the natural resources that are not being cared for?  
  • What effect could this be having on people’s access to natural spaces that promote mental health and wellbeing?  
  • What is being done to try and address this problem? Is there anything we could do?  
  • How did/do Māori protect and restore the mauri to natural resources? 
• As a class, explore the Te Whare Tapa Whā model developed by Mason Durie, while considering the impact of te taiao on their overall wellbeing. Ākonga could develop collage, spoken word, poetry, or simple charts to illustrate how time spent in te taiao contributes to their taha tinana (physical health), taha wairua (spiritual health), taha whānau (social health), taha hinengaro (mental health), and whenua (land/roots). They could also consider how their identity, language, and culture and show up within the model. 
• Provide examples of ways that early Māori adapted their environmental practices to protect the mauri of the natural environment. For example, Māori placed rāhui on areas where flora and fauna needed to replenish, and only trapped birds in seasons that they were not breeding. These practices continue today, in different ways for different iwi. Ask ākonga to find an example of where a rāhui was placed to maintain or restore the mauri of a natural resource. How did this effect access to the resource in the short and long term? 

• Support ākonga to measure levels of wellbeing in relation to the time they spend in nature. Ākonga could develop questions and set up an anonymous online survey (e.g., using Survey Monkey) to discover how much time people at their school are spending in the natural environment – in the bush, on the sea, by the river – and the impact this has on them. Include a focus on what barriers people may face in being able to spend time in nature and consider an extension activity of taking action to address some common barriers in your rohe. 
• Help ākonga to develop a review tool and conduct an evaluation of the current physical spaces around the school. They can then work in collaboration with senior leaders, the board, or caretakers to identify a space for a more aesthetically pleasing, relaxing environment. They may want to develop a mindfulness garden, an outdoor yoga space, or an area with native flora (this could involve working collaboratively with a local nursery or landscaping firm). This activity can ‘zoom out’ to include wider community spaces. See the Tips for engaging with community section of the Pūtātara home page for specific support. 
• Inspired by Tiffany Singh’s Indra’s Bow, ask ākonga to plan and create a class installation made of natural objects which represent what gives them strength or fuels their wellbeing. If they wish to, they could display the installation publicly with a description connecting the contents to each learner. They could also organise a public installation in which community members hang their object, thus creating a neighbourhood installation on the importance of connections with each other and the environment. 

Ask ākonga to reflect on the action they have taken. What impact did it have on the environment? What impact did it have on them personally? What strengths and limitations did it have?  

Find out about your school’s relationships with the local hapū and iwi before beginning this activity set. See the Productive partnerships with whānau, hapū, and iwi section in the Leading Local Curriculum Guide Part 1 for more information on growing these relationships. Ideally the activities will incorporate these relationships, however many will still be meaningful without this connection.  

As part of your preparation for this teaching and learning you need to have a good understanding of Maramataka. Review the resources provided in the learning experiences sectio​​n below. The following teacher resources may be of use, and you may choose to do further research: 

• Maramataka: The Māori calendar: A poster and some teaching strategies from Te Papa  
• Living by the Maramataka:This School Journal article and Teacher Support Material (TSM) may be helpful for you and your ākonga as a first introduction to Maramataka.  

Note especially that the Maramataka is not a calendar but a complex system of cycles and phases, so be sure to avoid referring to it as a calendar. 

Review the origins of the Gregorian calendar. Note that when we are using the Gregorian calendar, we include Aotearoa New Zealand’s public holidays, many of which were established with this calendar as a part of colonisation in Aotearoa New Zealand. 

You may want to review the activities you choose to use with your class to identify vocabulary that may need to be pre-taught beforehand. Create a word wall including these words that you can add to throughout the learning experience. 

What systems do we have in Aotearoa New Zealand that were designed for a different place? How do interactions with these systems affect our culture and identity? How do they affect our connection to the land and to ourselves? 

• Discuss the use of the main calendar we use in Aotearoa New Zealand, including when it starts and the public holidays it includes. 
• Ask ākonga to turn-and-talk to the person next to them about what they know of our public holidays and their seasonal connections. For example, snow and holly motifs at Christmas, spring flowers for Easter decorations, what regional anniversary days are commemorating, etc.  
• Ask ākonga what we call the calendar that runs from January to December and where it comes from  
• Ask how using a calendar based on Northern Hemisphere events (e.g. Easter, New Year in winter) impact on our understanding of the natural rhythms and seasonality of Aotearoa?  
• Ask ākonga what they know of Maramataka. How does it influence what we do in our school year? Working in groups, provide ākonga with a range of resources related to Maramataka. Ask them to identify how Aotearoa’s understanding of Maramataka is evolving, including celebration of Matariki. 
• Examples of resources include: 
  • Indigenous systems return: A Healthy Families NZ site dedicated to restoring indigenous knowledge and practices that encourage healthy communities  
  • What is the Maramataka: A collection of resources from Te Papa on the Maramataka and Matariki 
  • Learn about Maramataka: A helpful overview of Maramataka 
  • Our watch now: A powerful poem by Witi Ihimaera, with TSM produced by the National Library  
  • Rereata Makiha: Rereata Makiha speaking about Māori mythology and Maramataka  
  • FAQs about Maramataka: A clickable “cheat sheet” about Maramataka by Qiane Matata-Sipu  
• Facilitate a classroom discussion: Should Aotearoa use the Gregorian calendar or Maramataka? Start with a continuum to help get ākonga moving around the classroom and opening up the conversation. Support ākonga to respectfully look at all the positives, negatives, possibilities, and questions.  
• Compare and contrast the two calendars (Gregorian and Maramataka). The table below provides an example model. 

• If appropriate to your relationship, ask a representative from a local hapū or iwi to provide guidance on the Maramataka as understood in your rohe. This could include them visiting the school, you visiting them, or a video call with the class. 
• Provide an opportunity for ākonga to think and embark on an action which may lead to Maramataka having more influence in Aotearoa. See the Tips for engaging with community tab of the Pūtātara home page for specific support. 

Examples of actions include: 

• Ākonga launching a visibility campaign for Maramataka at your school, designing events for the school calendar that reflect Maramataka and focusing on ways to increase its active use.  
• Ākonga designing and developing a community event in a special place in their local landscape. This could coincide with a special time in Maramataka and become a regular community event in the school calendar. The event could include a welcome from kaumātua, a talk on the significance and history of the whenua | land where they are, acoustic performances from students and community members, poetry readings, and uplifting oratory. 
• Ākonga building a school garden (or adapting an existing one), following the guidance of the Maramataka as to when to sow and plant. 
• Ākonga engaging with a local expert in mātauranga Māori to wash away raru and bring in new energy and wellbeing. They collaborate with a representative from local hapū or iwi to plan a community event at an appropriate point within the Maramataka for raru to be cast into the tide. The event could include shared kai and a kōrero. 

Ask ākonga to reflect on their action. What impact did it have on the school? What impact did it have on them personally? What strengths and limitations did it have?