Best for
Use when Unit 10 moves from scarcity as an abstract idea to adaptation as a practical response to changing conditions, movement, and settlement.
Social studies + Aotearoa histories • Years 7-10 • Unit 10 support resource
Ngā Waka Migration and Adaptation
This handout helps ākonga connect migration stories with planning, navigation, food systems, and adaptation. The key move is noticing that journeys are never only about movement. They are also about mātauranga Māori, resourcefulness, and the choices people make when environments change.
Free migration inquiry, premium local-history adaptation
This version already works in class. Te Wānanga becomes useful when you want your local iwi, waka traditions, harbour routes, or migration case studies woven directly into the prompts.
- Swap in local waka histories or regional migration stories.
- Add extra source prompts for oral history, maps, or whānau narratives.
- Save an adapted adaptation-and-migration sequence in My Kete.
Kaiako planning snapshot
- Use length: 35-45 minutes.
- Grouping: Pairs for mapping, then individual reflection or story planning.
- Prep: Decide whether students need a map of Te Moana-nui-a-Kiwa visible.
- Teaching move: Ask “What mātauranga Māori kept people safe?” more often than “Where did they come from?”
Resources already provided
- Key vocabulary bank
- Route-planning table
- Navigation and adaptation prompts
- Story-planning scaffold
- Teacher-only curriculum companion
The point is not romanticising migration. It is showing that movement, settlement, and survival depend on mātauranga Māori, preparation, and collective decision-making.
Ngā Whāinga Akoranga / Learning Intentions
- We are learning how migration journeys depended on navigation knowledge and planning.
- We are learning to explain how people adapt when environments and resources change.
- We are learning to connect historical movement with present-day migration pressures.
Paearu Angitu / Success Criteria
- I can use the key vocabulary to describe migration, adaptation, and navigation.
- I can explain at least one survival decision connected to a waka journey.
- I can compare past migration with a present-day movement or displacement example.
1. Kupu matua / Key vocabulary
Whakatere
Navigation. The knowledge and actions used to travel safely.
Urutau
Adaptation. Changing plans or practices to fit new conditions.
Taiao
Environment. Weather, land, water, and living systems that shape decisions.
Kai
Food. A journey is only possible if people can secure and manage food.
Waka
The vessel, but also the collective journey and the people travelling together.
Kaitiaki
Guardians or protectors. People who care for knowledge, people, and resources.
2. Map the journey
| Waka or group | Challenge on the journey | Knowledge needed | How this links to survival |
|---|---|---|---|
| ________________________________ | ________________________________ | ________________________________ | ________________________________ |
| ________________________________ | ________________________________ | ________________________________ | ________________________________ |
| ________________________________ | ________________________________ | ________________________________ | ________________________________ |
Prompt
Think about stars, currents, food storage, weather reading, and deciding when to stop or keep moving. Which kinds of knowledge mattered most?
3. Navigation and adaptation
Star knowledge
What clues from the night sky could help navigators know direction, season, or timing?
Food planning
What decisions about kai and water would matter before leaving and after arriving?
4. Create a migration pūrākau plan
Navigator
What does this person notice? What knowledge do they carry?
Whānau member
What worries, hopes, or practical needs shape their choices?
Kaitiaki voice
How are people caring for each other and the environment on the journey?
5. Make the connection to today
| Historical migration idea | Present-day connection | What stays the same? | What is different? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Moving because current conditions are difficult | ________________________________ | ________________________________ | ________________________________ |
| Using knowledge to survive a journey | ________________________________ | ________________________________ | ________________________________ |
Hononga Marautanga · Curriculum Alignment
Mathematics — Pāngarau
Level 3–4: Apply number operations, statistical analysis, and mathematical reasoning to solve real-world problems; represent data using appropriate tools; interpret and communicate mathematical findings clearly.
Social Sciences — Tikanga ā-Iwi
Level 3–4: Understand how mathematical data and statistics are used to describe and analyse social, economic, and environmental patterns; recognise how data can reveal or obscure inequality.
Aronga Mātauranga Māori
Mathematics has always been part of mātauranga Māori — in the navigation of Te Moana-nui-a-Kiwa, in the architectural precision of wharenui, in the sophisticated storage and accounting systems of rua kūmara, and in the patterns of kōwhaiwhai and tukutuku that encode mathematical relationships in visual form. When Māori students engage with mathematics, they are not encountering something foreign: they are meeting a domain of knowledge that their tīpuna practised with extraordinary sophistication. Framing mathematical learning through whakapapa — connecting concepts to real Māori contexts — is not "cultural add-on" but recognition of where much mathematical knowledge lives in this land.
Tuhia ōu whakaaro · Write Your Thoughts
Reflect on what you have learned today. What was the most important idea? What question do you still have?
Ngā Rauemi Tautoko · Support Materials
This handout is designed to be used alongside the broader unit resources available at Te Kete Ako handouts library. Related resources from the same unit are linked in the unit planner. All resources are provided — no additional preparation is required to use this handout in your classroom.
📋 Teacher Planning Snapshot
Ngā Whāinga Ako — Learning Intentions
Students will engage with this resource to investigate the intersection of kai (food), culture, and climate — exploring how mātauranga Māori approaches to food production, preservation, and distribution offer powerful responses to contemporary food security and climate challenges in Aotearoa New Zealand and globally.
Ngā Paearu Angitū — Success Criteria
- ✅ Students can explain how traditional Māori kai practices (maramataka, kūmara cultivation, rāhui) embody ecological knowledge and food security principles.
- ✅ Students can connect kai culture and climate scarcity to contemporary community action and food sovereignty movements.
Differentiation & Inclusion
Scaffold support: Provide graphic organisers that map traditional kai practices to modern food security concepts at the entry level. Offer extension tasks asking students to research a specific iwi's traditional food system and evaluate its contemporary relevance, or to investigate a local food sovereignty initiative.
ELL / ESOL: Pre-teach domain vocabulary (food sovereignty, food security, kaitiakitanga, rāhui, maramataka) using visual diagrams and real-world examples. Draw connections to students' own cultural food traditions — these are valid entry points into the unit's themes. Allow oral or visual presentation of learning as alternatives to written tasks.
Inclusion: Kai is a universal human experience — all students have a relationship with food, seasonality, and sharing. Neurodiverse learners benefit from concrete, hands-on engagement with these concepts (e.g., examining a kūmara, mapping seasonal foods). Acknowledge diverse economic circumstances sensitively when discussing food security. Choice in how students demonstrate understanding (written, visual, oral) supports inclusive assessment.
Mātauranga Māori lens: The maramataka — the Māori lunar calendar — is one of Aotearoa's most sophisticated environmental data systems, encoding centuries of ecological observation about planting, harvesting, fishing, and weather patterns. Kūmara cultivation in pre-colonial Aotearoa was a feat of agricultural knowledge adapted to a new climate. Rāhui (temporary resource restrictions) is indigenous resource management — conservation before conservation. Kaitiakitanga frames the relationship between people and kai not as extraction but as reciprocal guardianship. These are not historical curiosities — they are living solutions to contemporary problems.
Prior knowledge: Students benefit from foundational understanding of climate change and food systems. No specialist mātauranga Māori knowledge required for entry-level engagement — the unit builds this knowledge progressively.
Curriculum alignment
- Place and Environment — Social Studies: Understand how people's management of resources reflects their values and their view of sustainability — and how mātauranga Māori frameworks provide models for sustainable resource management.
- Ecology — Living World: Understand how human activities and natural factors affect the distribution and abundance of organisms; evaluate the impact of changes on ecosystem health and food systems.