Best for
Lesson 2 comparison work, discussion of strategy and success, and preparation for paragraph or seminar tasks.
Unit 2 leadership inquiry • Years 8-10 • Resistance and authority
Leadership Profiles: Māori Resistance and Strategy
This page helps ākonga move beyond a single image of leadership. The leaders in Unit 2 were not all doing the same work. Some used diplomacy, some military strategy, some spiritual leadership, and some non-violent resistance. The comparison matters because it changes what “success” and “resistance” mean.
Free leadership comparison, premium adaptation path
This version is ready to print now. Te Wānanga becomes useful when you want a more local leadership set, a junior-reading version, or a debate pack built from the same figures.
- Generate a localised version with iwi- or rohe-specific leaders.
- Build support and extension variants with different reading loads.
- Save a class-specific leadership pack into My Kete and refine it in Creation Studio.
Kaiako planning snapshot
- Use length: 25-35 minutes for comparison, plus optional writing follow-up.
- Grouping: Individual reading or pair comparison, then class discussion.
- Prep: Decide whether your lesson emphasis is strategy, leadership philosophy, or definitions of success.
- Teaching move: Keep asking “What was this leader trying to protect or make possible?”
- Support / stretch: Support with two leaders only; stretch with a judgement on which strategy changed the course of history most.
Resources already provided
- Four profile cards with distinct strategies and purposes
- Write-on comparison spaces instead of generic comprehension only
- Prompting for significance and judgement
- Structured reflection on leadership and resistance
- A matching teacher-only curriculum companion
This page exists to stop the Aotearoa Wars being reduced to a list of battles and names with no thinking attached.
Ngā Whāinga Akoranga / Learning Intentions
- We are learning how Māori leaders used different strategies to defend people, place, and authority.
- We are learning how leadership can be military, spiritual, political, or non-violent.
- We are learning how to compare leaders through purpose, action, and significance.
Paearu Angitu / Success Criteria
- I can describe at least two different leadership strategies.
- I can explain what each leader was defending or trying to achieve.
- I can make a reasoned judgement about significance using evidence.
Curriculum integration / Te Marautanga alignment
The companion page makes the curriculum fit explicit across historical interpretation, significance, systems, and Māori agency in Aotearoa histories.
Mātauranga Māori note
Do not collapse these leaders into one generic “Māori resistance” figure. Their tikanga, context, and strategy differed. The learning is in noticing those differences while still seeing the wider thread of defending mana and authority.
Hōne Heke
Leadership style: symbolic challenge and direct confrontation.
What to notice: Cutting down the flagstaff was a political statement about broken expectations and authority, not random vandalism.
Riwha Tītokowaru
Leadership style: strategic military leadership and tactical innovation.
What to notice: He used engineering, terrain, and disciplined force to turn Crown assumptions against them.
Te Whiti o Rongomai
Leadership style: prophetic, collective, and non-violent resistance.
What to notice: Parihaka shows leadership can confront power through moral visibility and organised peace as well as armed defence.
Tāwhiao
Leadership style: political, diplomatic, and institution-building.
What to notice: Maintaining the Kīngitanga was itself a strategy for preserving Māori authority and collective direction.
Compare the leaders
| Leader | Main strategy | What they were defending | What makes their leadership significant? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hōne Heke | |||
| Riwha Tītokowaru | |||
| Te Whiti o Rongomai | |||
| Tāwhiao |
Support pathway
Choose two leaders and explain one similarity and one difference in their strategy.
Core pathway
Which leader best demonstrates that resistance is not only military? Use evidence from the profiles.
Stretch pathway
Make a judgement about which leadership strategy had the most lasting significance and justify it carefully.
Hononga Marautanga · Curriculum Alignment
Social Sciences — Tikanga ā-Iwi
Level 3–4: Investigate social, cultural, environmental, and economic questions; gather and evaluate evidence from diverse sources; communicate findings and reasoning clearly for different audiences and purposes.
English — Communication
Level 3–4: Read, interpret, and evaluate information texts; write clearly and purposefully for specific audiences; apply critical thinking skills to evaluate sources and construct well-reasoned responses.
Aronga Mātauranga Māori
This resource sits within a kaupapa that recognises mātauranga Māori as a living knowledge system with its own frameworks, values, and ways of understanding the world. The New Zealand Curriculum calls for learning that reflects the bicultural partnership of Te Tiriti o Waitangi, which means every subject area has an obligation to engage authentically with Māori perspectives — not as cultural decoration but as substantive contributions to how we understand our topics. The concepts of manaakitanga (care for others), kaitiakitanga (guardianship), whanaungatanga (relationship and belonging), and tino rangatiratanga (self-determination) provide a values framework applicable across all learning areas, and all are relevant to the work in this handout.
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 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.