Friday, August 13, 2010

Teaching geography in New Zealand: Māori geography

An equirectangular projection of Polynesia, cr...
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Following on from a post I made a few weeks ago Links to ideas, resources, and tools for learning and teaching Te Reo Māori, there has been growing interest in discipline-specific resources, in particular geography.

 

Curriculum

 

Paul Keown from the University of Waikato suggests that Māori geography should feature more strongly, and indicated that the new school curriculum certainly enables that, while the Māori Geography Unit standards allow geography students to gain NCEA credits too.

 

Original documents and sources

 














Graphs that show the number of canoes arriving 1852-1858 (click on the thumnail images above to see the graphs full size)


Janey Nolan (also from the University of Waikato and initiator of the Isolated to Connected Geography Community) has also uploaded a couple of graphs (click on the thumbnail images above to see them full size). Janey advises that the graphs are "not great quality but ok if you click on them and enlarge them". The graphs illustrate "the number of canoes that arrived in Onehunga from the years 1852 to 1858: Also, Crews and Quantity and Species of Produce, as nearly as can be ascertained (A. J. H. R. 1865). The graphs show [that] the amount of produce the Waikato Maori traded with Australia is amazing , especially kits of Onions, Cabbages, Peaches, Maize etc. as well as fowls, pigs, ducks, fish etc... I also have the stories of how the canoe passed through the Waikao River and then to Waiuku and was carried by men, women and children [and] dragged from Awaroa Creek to Manakau. (written Jan, 1859). I'll add story...[later] as this is particularly interesting to those of us who teach natural processes in the Waikato River/Aka Aka basin /Waiuku area" (source).

 

Names


If you are interested in finding information and resources about official and unofficial names for features and places in New Zealand, Antarctica and the Pacific, this Web site is well worth a visit.

 

Glossary


This is a glossary of Māori geography terms, which "has been compiled so that it is especially of assistance in the application of specific concepts and terms to geography".

 

Sites for locating and researching Māori geography


The following are all sites that students could use to carry out their own projects and research study around Māori geography.

 

Other resources

 

Other resources include this video where Simon Lambert explains re-indigenising humanity, what Māori geography is, and revitalizing the Indigenous mind.



More resources include a video about "Māori names sought for North (Te Ika a Maui) and South Islands (Te Wai Pounamu)", which raises some good points for discussion, and "Whale Watch Kaikoura, Responsible Tourism Awards winner", that, again, could be a useful conversation starter.
For those who prefer to read and are interested in socio-economic geography, this paper by Chris Paulin looks at perspectives of Maori fishing history and techniques (click HERE to download the .pdf).
For and up to date conversation around many of the factors and issues of Maori land use, this blog (Whakairo te whenua, whakairo te tangata: Maori Cultural Political Economy) is a useful one to follow, and some of the posts could be a powerful way of opening up discussion amongst learners.

 

A call for more

 

Does anyone have other suggestions? What other resources do you use with your students? What can you recommend (especially interactive, online resources that would be pretty much ubiquitously accessible)? Please add ideas below, and I'd be very happy to collate them if you'd like :-)
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