Kaitiakitanga — Environmental Guardianship Lab
Kaitiakitanga — Environmental Guardianship Lab · Years 7–10
Ngā Whāinga Akoranga · Learning Intentions
- Understand and apply key concepts from te ao Māori to learning and life
- Engage with te reo Māori vocabulary and cultural frameworks with accuracy and respect
- Connect Māori values and concepts to contemporary issues and personal identity
- Recognise the significance of Māori cultural knowledge as a living, relevant system
Paearu Angitu · Success Criteria
- I can explain at least three te ao Māori concepts accurately in my own words
- I use te reo Māori vocabulary with correct meaning and appropriate context
- I can connect a Māori concept to a real contemporary situation or personal experience
- My engagement with this material demonstrates genuine curiosity and cultural respect
Video Companion · Kaitiakitanga — Environmental Guardianship Lab
Use this handout before, during, and after viewing.
What is Kaitiakitanga?
Kaitiakitanga transforms how we relate to the environment — from "resources to extract" to "taonga to protect for future generations." A kaitiaki is a guardian: someone with the responsibility to care for what has been entrusted to them by their tīpuna and by the environment itself.
Environmental Analysis
Choose one local environment (awa, moana, ngahere, or marae gardens). Identify: (1) Who are the traditional kaitiaki? (2) What threats does this environment face? (3) What restoration work is being done?
Reflection
How does the concept of kaitiakitanga challenge the idea that humans are "owners" of the environment? What would change if more people adopted a kaitiaki mindset?
Critical Thinking Questions
1. Kaitiakitanga in practice
Describe one example of kaitiakitanga in action — either from the video or from your local community. What specific actions does it involve?
2. Comparing worldviews
How does a kaitiakitanga approach to the environment differ from a purely economic or "resource management" approach? What are the strengths of each?
3. Your role
What is one concrete action you or your class could take to practice kaitiakitanga in your local environment? Be specific about the place, the action, and the expected benefit.
Hononga Marautanga · Curriculum Alignment
Level 3–4: Understand how Māori cultural practices, values, and whakapapa shape identity and community; recognise the significance of te Tiriti o Waitangi and the contribution of Māori culture to Aotearoa New Zealand's national identity.
Level 3–4: Use te reo Māori to express cultural concepts, identity, and relationships with accuracy and respect; understand the significance of Māori language as a taonga and its role in sustaining mātauranga Māori.
Tuhia ōu whakaaro · Write Your Thoughts
Reflect on your learning. What was the most important idea? What question do you still have?
Aronga Mātauranga Māori
This resource engages directly with te ao Māori as its subject — the values, practices, language, and worldview that have sustained Māori communities across centuries of challenge and change. Mātauranga Māori is not a supplement to this learning: it is the source. Students approaching this material are invited to engage with it not as outside observers studying a foreign culture, but as people in relationship with a living knowledge tradition that shapes the place they live, the language they may speak, and the obligations they carry as tāngata o Aotearoa — people of this land.
Ngā Rauemi Tautoko · Resources already provided
- Te ao Māori concepts glossary — key terms and their meanings
- Whakapapa framework — for understanding relationships and connections
- Contemporary application guide — connecting traditional concepts to modern contexts
📋 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.