Groups want Maori history at all schools
level, understanding “events of significance to New Zealanders”.
The Ministry of Education published guidelines in 2015 encouraging teachers to teach the local Maori history of their districts, Te Takanga o te Wa (The Passage of Time). But New Zealand Principals Federation president Whetu Cormick said no resources had been provided to teach most teachers about it.
“Last year I didn’t even know that this resource existed. Nobody told me,” he said.
Cherie Taylor-Patel of West Auckland’s Flanshaw Rd School said her school developed its own links with local iwi Te Kawerau a Maki to create a carved pou (pole) depicting the guardians of the area.
Lara Hearn, who was the national co-ordinator of social sciences professional development until the position was abolished at the end of last year, said the ministry funded teachers in 2014-16 to develop local Maori history units in three districts: Rotorua, Whanganui and Murihiku (Southland).
She said six Southland schools developed resources about local events such as the Battle of Tuturau in 1836, the last battle in the Musket Wars.
In Rotorua, John Paul College head of social sciences Simon Baker worked with local iwi Ngati Whakaue to develop a unit on another incident in the Musket Wars — a raid by Ngapuhi chief Hongi Hika on Mokoia Island in Lake Rotorua in 1823. Baker said the unit included traditional waiata, which helped make “a real connection” for many Maori students.
“I got a lot of personal feedback from the Maori students about the connections that their families had to it, that the waiata were their families’ waiata, that was the first waiata that they were taught as a child,” he said.
He taught the unit for the National Certificate of Educational Achieve-
HFor a video, go nzherald.co.nz ment (NCEA) for the first time last year and achieved a high pass rate.
“There are pressures in schools for teachers to use material that is successful in exams,” he said. “That’s why it’s really good that with the work we did on Mokoia Island, they passed.”
Baker and Pat Johnstone, the head of social sciences at Whanganui City College, who developed a unit on the Battle of Moutoa, both stressed the need to talk to local iwi before teaching their history.
In Whanganui, Johnstone and another teacher sat in on interviews their local iwi was recording with kaumatua.