Tangata Whenua: The First Innovators

Social Studies Online

TEACHER Elise Gordon

TEACHING AND LEARNING ACTIVITIES

Select and adapt these learning activities to best meet the needs of your students, and to fit the time available:

1. Stringing Our Ideas Together - What we know about the lives of early Māori settlers
   You will need a ball of string for this activity. Have students sit in a circle. Each child is asked to think about what they already know about what life was like for the Māori people in New Zealand before any Europeans arrived. The teacher begins with an example stating one fact they already know, such as "Māori lived together in extended families on the marae". The teacher then holds the free end of the ball of string and passes the ball on to someone else in the circle to contribute their idea. They then hold on to the string and pass the ball on to someone else. After everyone has shared their ideas the number of connections in the circle shows how much we collectively know about the topic. You may like to have a recorder who notes down the ideas of the group.

2. Topic Overview - Picture Dictation
   Complete a picture dictation with the following facts. This provides an overview of some of the important points the students will come across in the unit and an opportunity to record information in a visual way. As the teacher reads the statements aloud, children record these visually on a 3 by 3 grid.
   1. Early Māori settlers lived a subsistence lifestyle. This means that they lived off the land and the resources the land provided. The land was very important.
   2. They grew and ate vegetables such as kumara and collected fish from the sea and birds from the bush.
   3. Māori used flax to make kete (bags), ropes and clothing.
   4. Wood was used for many things including canoes and whare (houses).
   5. Tools were made from stone, shell and bone.
   6. Māori used the features of the land to protect them. They made a Pa at the top of a hill protected by palisades (fences) and terraces around the hill.
   7. Because the land was such a valuable resource to Māori they had customs for looking after it. For example, any flax that had been taken and not needed was returned back to the same bush.
   8. The centre of daily life was the kainga (village). This was shared with several family groups.
   9. Traditions and knowledge were passed on by the spoken word through whai-korero (speeches), whakatauki (proverbs), pepeha (sayings), karakia (prayers), waiata (chants), whakapapa (genealogy) and purakau (stories), and also in whakairo (carvings), tukutuku (weaving) and ta moko (tattoo).

   When finished, students pair up and tell each other about early Māori settlers' life using their completed picture dictation as a prompt.

3. How can we find out about the past?
   Think about how people in the future will find out what life was like for us at the beginning of the twenty-first century. What "clues" might we leave for people in the future? Complete the finding out about me sheet and then share answers as a class. Begin by revising the guidelines for sharing ideas if necessary.
   • How will they be able to find out about you?
   • How will people know how many people lived in your house?
   • How will people know what you ate?
   • How will people know what jobs you had?
   • How will people know about the rest of your family?

   Mindtools – Brainstorm different ways we can find out about the past. Which of these things will we be able to use in finding out about the life of early Māori settlers? You may highlight the fact that Māori people had an oral language and did not convert this to a written language until after the Europeans arrived. Discuss how this would affect the ways we can find out about their lives during this period.

4. Artefact Analysis
   Archaeological findings are one way which we have been able to find out about early Māori life. This evidence has been pieced together to create a picture of how Māori people lived in New Zealand before European contact. Prepare photo cards of some Early Māori taonga. Give these to children in groups of 3-4 to discuss using the artefact analysis sheet. Have each group present their photo card and thoughts to the class. Make a class chart of the things we KNOW from these artefacts as well as the things we think are POSSIBILITIES and the QUESTIONS we have. This list can be used at the end of the unit to reflect upon whether we can change our possibilities into certainties or answer our questions.

   Pictures for this lesson are available from Te Papa and/or timeframes - a database of heritage images from the Alexander Turnbull Library Website. To find suitable images click on search and type in "traditional Māori". Click once on the picture to enlarge the image. These images will print from the site with a national library watermark embedded in the object or may be purchased from the site. For further information on the artefacts click on the artefact name below the picture. Otherwise photos from books photocopied onto card would be suitable.

   The following timeframes pictures would be appropriate;

   • Māori artefacts from Horowhenua district
   • Wooden Māori artefacts from Mangaroa pa-mound
   • Traditional Māori artefacts
   • Matau (traditional fish hooks of Māori)
   • Hinaki (traditional Māori wicker baskets for trapping eels and other fish)
   • Traditional Māori weapons

5. What can we learn from other archaeological sites or findings about the early Māori settlers?
   • Stones tell of a rich history
   • Significance of the Otuataua Stonefields to Māori
   • Wall protects ancient dump
   • NZ Rock Art
   • Rescuing Knowledge
   • Dig offers clue to first contact

   In small groups read the above articles. Have each student create a KNOW, POSSIBILITIES and QUESTIONS chart themself. Ideas can then be discussed and added to the class chart, building up a record of the things children are discovering about early Māori settlers.

6. Other ways culture and heritage of the early Māori settlers has been passed on
   • whakapapa
     • Whakapapa Māori
   • story telling & legends
     • Māori Legends
     • Māori Myths
   • carvings
     • Māori Carving was used to record the ancestors
   • weavings
     • Māori Treasures Weaving

   Students choose two of the above and investigate how they can tell us or remind people about the past. Children are to present their ideas in the graphic organiser.

7. Word List
   Prepare one word list for students to use in groups of 3-4. This list discusses different ways Māori used the environment. Ask students to divide the words into categories and use the cards provided or add your own headings for their categories on the spare cards provided. As a class discuss the different ways the students have grouped these words and the words used for, or added, as headings.

8. Class Display - Ways the environment was used and the impact of these activities
   • Assessment Activity
   • Assessment Schedule

   Students create class display. Each student (or pair of students - you choose) researches one way in which the environment was used by early Māori settlers and how this activity affected the land. Students could also consider how the land affected or influenced Māori, the cultural connection Māori had and have to Papatuanuku. Māori can trace their whakapapa back to Papatuanuku and Ranginui, so the focus can extend beyond the land. It also encompasses giving back to the land, and seeing people as extensions of our geographic environment.

   Each student or team will create one page for this display. Set the criteria for this with your students, for example each student or team must include:

   • A title
   • An introduction to the activity - explain what the activity is
   • An explanation of why the activity was important for early Māori settlers
   • A description of any short term and long term effects of this activity
   • Discussion of the archaeological evidence left from this activity
   • Accurate information
   • A range of sources

   Your students may come up with other ideas for what should be included and how this should be presented. Use this completed criteria list for students to self evaluate their work on the self evaluation sheet. Possible topics are listed below with some appropriate Web site links. You may find some of the links address more than one area of land use.

   Pa - defence

   • Northland Pa
   • A Virtual Field Trip to Maungakiekie/One Tree Hill
   • Pa diagram

   Forest

   • The Bridge and the Barrier - Research Themes (discusses moa hunting, bracken fern root, birds collected from the forest)
   • Forestry Insights - Culture and Heritage
   • Forestry Insights - Deforestation

   Agriculture

   • Our Land Timeline

   Fishing

   • Traditional Māori Fishing - Fact Sheet

   Pounamu / Greenstone

   • Pounamu
   • Tiki Page

   Flax

   • Margery Blackman - Textile Curator
   • New Zealand Flax

RESOURCES

Electronic

• Whakapapa - NZ History
• Glossary of Māori Terms

Print

• Davidson, J. (1992). The Prehistory of New Zealand. Longmann Paul: Auckland.
• Ensor, A. & Rountree, K. (1984). An Introduction to New Zealand Prehistory. Auckland Museum Education Service: Auckland.
• Graham, P. (1986). The Story of the Māori. The Bush Press: Auckland.
• Locke, E. (1988). Two Peoples, One Land: A history of Aotearoa/New Zealand. GP Publications.
• MacDonald, R. (1993). Māori. Wayland: Hove.
• Mills, H. (1982). Digging Up The Past: The first New Zealanders. MacMillan: Auckland.
• Naumann, R. & Winiata, F. (1990). Te Ao O Te Māori: The World of the Māori. New House: Takapuna Odijk, P. (1989). The Māori. MacMillan: South Melbourne.
• Rountree, K. (1985). Nga Tipuna: Life in Māori Communities 1200-1769. Longman Paul: Auckland