Best for
Statistics lessons that need authentic Aotearoa data, or social studies lessons that benefit from graphing, comparison, and quantitative reasoning.
Statistics + Social Studies • Aotearoa contexts • Years 8-11 • Print-ready tomorrow
Treaty Settlement Statistics and Justice
Use this handout to help ākonga read settlement data carefully, construct simple visualisations, and discuss what numbers can and cannot show about redress in Aotearoa. The goal is mathematical thinking with historical integrity, not turning justice into a single dollar figure.
Free cross-curricular scaffold, premium adaptation path
This version is ready now. Te Wānanga is useful when you want your own local settlement example, revised data sets, or a junior / senior differentiated statistics version of the same task.
- Swap in local iwi or rohe-specific examples with teacher notes.
- Generate a supported graphing-only version or a more analytical interpretation version.
- Save and keep refining a class copy in My Kete or Creation Studio.
Kaiako planning snapshot
- Use length: 35-50 minutes for graphing plus interpretation, or a double period if students investigate a local settlement example as well.
- Grouping: Pairs work well for calculations and graph construction before an individual written reflection.
- Prep: Decide whether the priority is graphing, percentage comparison, or justice-focused interpretation.
- Teaching move: Say early that numbers are one lens only. Students should notice both what data shows and what it cannot measure.
- Support / stretch: Support students with a pre-labelled graph frame; ask confident students to compare mean, median, and outliers or discuss why those measures do and do not help.
Resources already provided
- A settlement data table
- Graphing space
- Comparison and percentage prompts
- Justice-interpretation writing frame
- Support and extension options already on the page
If the lesson refers to graphing space, calculations, or interpretation prompts, they already exist here.
Ngā Whāinga Akoranga / Learning Intentions
- We are learning how to interpret a real data set connected to Te Tiriti and redress.
- We are learning how to represent data clearly in a graph or table.
- We are learning how to explain what numbers show and what they do not show about justice.
Paearu Angitu / Success Criteria
- I can read the variables in the data table and construct a clear graph from the data.
- I can compare values using mathematical language and simple calculations.
- I can explain one limit of using numbers alone to talk about Treaty redress.
Curriculum integration / Te Marautanga alignment
The companion page makes the curriculum links explicit across statistics, data visualisation, and social studies learning about systems, fairness, redress, and public understanding of Te Tiriti.
Read the numbers carefully
Treaty settlements can be represented in numbers such as year, financial redress, hectares, or numbers of claims. Those numbers help us notice patterns. But they do not capture everything that matters, such as language revitalisation, grief, mana, relationship repair, or the full scale of historical loss.
A mātauranga Māori lens reminds us that whenua and taonga are not only economic assets. So this inquiry asks students to read data carefully without pretending that a spreadsheet tells the whole story of justice.
Settlement data set
| Settlement example | Year settled | Financial redress | One thing the numbers do not fully show |
|---|---|---|---|
| Waikato-Tainui | 1995 | $170 million | Intergenerational land loss, relationship repair, and ongoing Crown accountabilities. |
| Ngāi Tahu | 1998 | $170 million | The cultural, spiritual, and environmental significance of places and taonga. |
| Ngāti Awa | 2005 | $42.39 million | The long community cost of delay, exclusion, and loss of authority. |
| Central North Island Iwi Collective | 2008 | $161 million | How co-management and cultural redress shape long-term stewardship. |
| Tūhoe | 2014 | $170 million | Changes in governance, legal status, and relationships to Te Urewera. |
Task 1: Build a graph
Choose one graph type
- Bar graph of financial redress values
- Time-series graph showing settlement year and value
Label the title, axes, units, and scale clearly.
Task 2: Calculate and compare
- Find the difference between the highest and lowest financial redress values in the table.
- Calculate the mean financial redress for the five examples.
- Which settlements cluster together, and which one is an outlier or near-outlier?
- Explain one thing your graph makes easy to notice.
Task 3: What do the numbers not show?
Justice reflection
Complete the sentence: "This data is useful because ... but it does not fully show ..."
Support, core, stretch
Support
Start with a bar graph and use the sentence frame: "The graph shows ... because ..."
Core
Compare the mean to the individual values and explain what that tells you about the set.
Stretch
Explain whether a single statistic is enough to talk about redress, and justify your answer with both maths and social-studies reasoning.
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.
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 build pāngarau (mathematical) understanding — developing number sense, pattern recognition, and mathematical reasoning through hands-on, culturally grounded activities that connect to tamariki's world.
Ngā Paearu Angitū — Success Criteria
- ✅ Students can explain their mathematical thinking using words, objects, drawings, or symbols.
- ✅ Students can apply the number or pattern concept in this resource to a real or everyday context.
Differentiation & Inclusion
Scaffold support: Use concrete materials (blocks, counters, fingers) for entry-level engagement before progressing to abstract representations. Offer extension challenges asking students to generalise a pattern, write their own word problem, or explain their strategy to a partner.
ELL / ESOL: Mathematical language is a discipline-specific barrier — pre-teach key terms (e.g., equals, more than, fewer, pattern, factor) using visual representations. Allow students to demonstrate mathematical understanding non-verbally or through drawing. Pair with a bilingual buddy where possible.
Inclusion: Embed choice in how students engage — oral, written, or diagrammatic responses are all valid. Neurodiverse learners benefit from short, chunked task sequences with immediate feedback loops. Avoid timed drills in favour of exploratory tasks that reward curiosity. Make the maths classroom a safe place to be wrong and try again.
Mātauranga Māori lens: Pāngarau is a living tradition in Te Ao Māori — from the geometric precision of tukutuku and kōwhaiwhai patterns to the navigational mathematics of waka hourua, and the seasonal calculations embedded in maramataka. Framing early number sense within these contexts shows tamariki that mathematics is a human, culturally rich endeavour — not a foreign import. Encourage students to see counting, measuring, and patterning as acts of knowing their world.
Prior knowledge: Designed for early learners. No prior formal mathematics knowledge required. Teachers should assess current number knowledge before selecting appropriate entry points.
Curriculum alignment
- Number and Algebra — Number Strategies: Use a range of counting, grouping, and equal-sharing strategies with whole numbers and fractions.
- Number and Algebra — Patterns and Relationships: Generalise that the next counting number gives the result of adding one object to a set and that counting the number of objects in a set tells how many.