Best for
Foundational Treaty learning, entry-point Aotearoa histories, civics, and junior-to-middle social studies programmes.
Social Studies • Aotearoa histories • Years 7-10 • Print-ready tomorrow
Te Tiriti o Waitangi Foundations
Use this handout to build a respectful, accurate first understanding of Te Tiriti o Waitangi. Ākonga meet the key kupu, the relationship between governance and tino rangatiratanga, and why Te Tiriti is a living framework rather than a distant topic from 1840.
Free Treaty foundation, premium adaptation path
This version is ready to print and use. Te Wānanga becomes useful when you want your own rohe, local iwi history, bilingual supports, or differentiated versions for support and extension groups.
- Add local iwi, hapū, settlement, or place-based Treaty examples.
- Generate a younger summary version or a more analytical senior discussion sheet.
- Save a class-specific copy into My Kete and keep refining it in Creation Studio.
Kaiako planning snapshot
- Use length: 30-40 minutes for first teaching, or 15-20 minutes as a recap before a deeper Treaty lesson.
- Grouping: Whole-class framing first, then pairs for scenario kōrero and an individual written explanation.
- Prep: Decide whether the next lesson will move into source comparison, local history, or present-day civic application.
- Teaching move: Teach Te Tiriti and the English Treaty as related but not identical texts, and keep returning to what relationships each article is trying to shape.
- Support / stretch: Use the sentence starters for support; ask students to compare a local example of shared decision-making for extension.
Resources already provided
- Key-kupu concept cards for kāwanatanga, tino rangatiratanga, and taonga
- A Treaty-in-practice scenario set with write-on response space
- A concise explanation of why Te Tiriti still matters
- Support and extension pathways on the page
- A matching teacher-only curriculum companion
If tomorrow’s lesson mentions discussion prompts, scenario cards, or writing space, they are already here. Kaiako should not need to build a second worksheet at night.
Ngā Whāinga Akoranga / Learning Intentions
- We are learning what Te Tiriti o Waitangi is and why it still matters in Aotearoa.
- We are learning how key kupu shape meaning and relationships.
- We are learning how Treaty ideas can guide present-day decisions.
Paearu Angitu / Success Criteria
- I can explain the basic purpose of Te Tiriti o Waitangi.
- I can describe at least two key kupu and why they matter.
- I can apply Treaty ideas to a present-day decision or relationship.
Curriculum integration / Te Marautanga alignment
The companion page makes the curriculum intent explicit around systems, power, rights, responsibilities, and how iwi and Crown relationships shape civic life in Aotearoa.
Why Te Tiriti is a living issue
Te Tiriti o Waitangi was signed in 1840 between many Māori rangatira and representatives of the Crown. It is often called a founding agreement, but it is more than a past event to memorise. It still shapes how people talk about authority, relationships, rights, responsibilities, and fairness in Aotearoa.
Through a mātauranga Māori lens, Te Tiriti is not just about government structure. It is also about mana, whenua, taonga, and the integrity of relationships between peoples. Teaching it well means avoiding thin slogans and helping students see why the relationship work is ongoing.
Kāwanatanga
This word is often linked to governance. Students should notice that governance is not the same thing as absolute, uncontested control.
Tino rangatiratanga
This points to authority, self-determination, and the right of Māori communities to continue exercising power over what matters to them.
Taonga
Taonga are not only objects. The term can include language, knowledge, land, waterways, relationships, and treasured things people are responsible for.
Hold these ideas together
Te Tiriti is about relationships
Strong Treaty learning asks: What relationship was being proposed between Māori and the Crown? What responsibilities came with that relationship? How should people act when those responsibilities are not honoured well?
Different texts, different meanings
The Māori text and the English text are related, but not identical. That is why wording, translation, and interpretation matter so much in Aotearoa history and public life.
Treaty-in-practice scenarios
Local place names
A council is deciding whether to restore Māori place names in a public area. What would partnership and protection look like here?
School decision-making
A kura is redesigning a local-history unit. How should mana whenua be involved so the work does not become extractive or tokenistic?
Taonga and resources
A public agency wants to use mātauranga Māori in a new project. What questions should be asked about permission, protection, and who benefits?
Your explanation
Choose one scenario. Explain how Te Tiriti could guide a better decision. Use this frame if you need it: “Te Tiriti matters here because...”, “One key relationship is...”, “A fair next step would be...”
Support: explain one key kupu clearly. Stretch: compare how kāwanatanga and tino rangatiratanga should work together in your scenario.
Tautoko / Support
- Read the context paragraph aloud and unpack the key kupu together before independent work.
- Have students answer only one scenario with sentence starters.
- Allow oral rehearsal in pairs before students write.
Whakawhānui / Extend
- Ask students to write a comparison between one historical and one present-day Treaty issue.
- Bring in a local example from your rohe and ask what changes when place-specific history is included.
- Use the next handout to compare the Māori and English texts directly.
Hononga Marautanga · Curriculum Alignment
Social Sciences — Tikanga ā-Iwi
Level 3–4: Investigate how historical, political, and economic processes shape societies; understand how people participate in communities to create change; analyse different perspectives on social, cultural, and environmental issues.
English — Research and Literacy
Level 3–4: Gather, evaluate, and synthesise information from multiple sources; construct well-reasoned arguments using evidence; communicate social science understanding clearly in written, oral, and visual forms.
Aronga Mātauranga Māori
Social Sciences taught well in Aotearoa should be uncomfortable — because the history of this land is one in which Māori and other communities have faced injustice, and in which those injustices are not yet fully addressed. Mātauranga Māori offers frameworks for thinking about social change that go beyond Western political theory: the concept of tino rangatiratanga (self-determination), of kotahitanga (unity in purpose), of utu (reciprocity across time) — these are not abstract ideas but working tools for analysing how power has been distributed and how it might be redistributed more justly. Social Sciences that centres these frameworks gives students the analytical vocabulary to name what they see in the world and imagine what could be different.
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 develop a decolonized understanding of Aotearoa's history — reading the past through the eyes of tangata whenua, examining primary sources critically, and understanding how colonisation continues to shape the present. This unit centres mana Māori as the starting point, not a footnote.
Ngā Paearu Angitū — Success Criteria
- ✅ Students can analyse a historical source for perspective, reliability, and significance — including identifying whose voices are centred or absent.
- ✅ Students can explain how a specific historical event — such as the NZ Wars, land confiscations, or the Dawn Raids — connects to present-day inequities and Māori-led responses.
Differentiation & Inclusion
Scaffold support: Provide annotated source analysis frames for entry-level access — guiding students through the OPCVL or SOLO process step by step. Offer extension tasks asking students to compare a colonial-era source with a contemporary Māori account of the same event, analysing how the historical narrative has been contested and reclaimed.
ELL / ESOL: Primary source language (particularly 19th-century English) presents specific challenges — pre-read sources with students and pre-teach archaic or specialist vocabulary. Allow students to express historical analysis in their home language first before translating to English. Bilingual glossaries support engagement without reducing intellectual demand. Some ELL students may bring first-hand experience of colonisation from other contexts — honour these as valid comparative perspectives.
Inclusion: Decolonized history can surface difficult emotions for Māori students encountering colonial violence and injustice in the curriculum for the first time. Create a trauma-informed classroom. Neurodiverse learners benefit from chunked tasks and clear analytical scaffolds. Ensure all students understand that the purpose of this unit is not guilt but understanding — and that understanding is the foundation of partnership and change.
Mātauranga Māori lens: Decolonizing history means more than "adding Māori perspectives" — it means recognising that the dominant historical narrative itself is a colonial artefact. Whakapapa is an alternative historical framework: tracing connections, obligations, and continuity across time. The NZ Wars were not distant events — their consequences live in land ownership patterns, economic disparities, and community structures today. Tino rangatiratanga — the right of self-determination — was not surrendered at Waitangi and has been asserted continuously through protest, legislation, and resurgence. Teaching this history is an obligation of Te Tiriti partnership.
Prior knowledge: Students benefit from foundational knowledge of the Treaty of Waitangi and its context. No specialist prior knowledge required for entry-level source analysis tasks — scaffolds are provided.
Curriculum alignment
- Aotearoa New Zealand Histories — Know: Understand that colonisation was a global process that had a specific and profound impact on tangata whenua in Aotearoa, and that Māori responses to colonisation have been continuous and varied.
- Do — Social Studies: Explore perspectives, use evidence to form conclusions, and share ideas — analyse primary sources, compare historical perspectives, and present findings.