🌊🛶 Ko tōku Awa, Ko tōku Waka
Extending pepeha with river and ancestral canoe connections
📚 Ngā Whāinga Ako — Learning Intentions
WALT:
- Identify a river (awa) that connects to us or our area
- Research our ancestral waka (if applicable)
- Say "Ko [Awa] tōku awa" and "Ko [Waka] tōku waka" correctly
- Understand singular (tōku) vs plural (ōku) forms
WILF:
- Students can add awa and waka lines to their pepeha
- Students pronounce new vocabulary correctly
📋 Lesson Flow (60 mins)
🌅 Recap & Warm-up (10 mins)
Maunga Mahi Tahi: Students share their maunga line with a NEW partner.
Quick review: Call on 3-4 volunteers to share their maunga sentence with the class.
Today's preview: "Today we're adding TWO more lines — our awa (river) and waka (ancestral canoe)!"
🌊 Focus 1: Ko tōku Awa (15 mins)
Pronunciation:
- awa = "ah-wah" (river, stream)
Discussion:
- Rivers are the lifeblood of the land — te awa = the veins of Papatūānuku
- Many iwi have special relationships with their awa (e.g., Whanganui River has legal personhood)
Activity: Find Your Awa
- Using a map, find rivers near where you live or where your family is from
- Choose your awa and write: "Ko ______ tōku awa."
- Practice with a partner
🛶 Focus 2: Ko tōku Waka (15 mins)
Background:
Māori ancestors voyaged to Aotearoa on great oceanic waka (canoes) from Hawaiki. Each iwi traces back to a specific waka.
The Main Ancestral Waka:
Activity: Research Your Waka
- If you know your iwi, research which waka your iwi descends from
- Ask your whānau — they may know!
- If unsure, you can skip this line or say a waka connected to your area
📝 Grammar Focus: Tōku vs Ōku (10 mins)
Key distinction:
| tōku | my (ONE thing) | Ko Waikato tōku awa. |
| ōku | my (MORE THAN ONE) | Ko Waikato rāua ko Waipā ōku awa. |
Example: If you have TWO significant rivers, you use "ōku" (plural).
🎤 Oral Practice (10 mins)
Build your pepeha so far:
- Stand and face a partner
- Say your THREE lines so far:
- Ko [Maunga] tōku maunga.
- Ko [Awa] tōku awa.
- Ko [Waka] tōku waka.
- Partner responds: "Tēnā koe!" then shares theirs
- Find a NEW partner and repeat
📎 Ngā Rauemi — Resources
⚡ Rerekētanga — Differentiation
- Provide a waka-to-iwi reference chart
- Students can use local rivers if unsure of ancestral ones
- Record audio of teacher saying each line
- Research the journey of your waka from Hawaiki
- Find a pūrākau (story) about your awa
- Practice using "ōku" for multiple rivers/waka
👩🏫 Teacher Notes
- Waka can be sensitive — some students may not know their iwi or waka. Reassure them that using the waka connected to their region is appropriate.
- The Whanganui River (Te Awa Tupua) was granted legal personhood in 2017 — great discussion point on Māori connection to awa.
- Emphasize that pepeha is personal — there's no "wrong" choice as long as it's meaningful to the student.
🎬 Media Anchor (8 mins)
Media Anchor: Awa and Waka Connections
- Which relationship between people and water is strongest in this source?
- How could that idea strengthen your awa/waka sentence?
📋 Teacher Planning Snapshot
Ngā Whāinga Ako — Learning Intentions
Students will engage with this resource to craft and perform their personal pepeha — the traditional introduction that locates a person within their whakapapa, connecting maunga, awa, waka, iwi, hapū, and ingoa. Pepeha is one of the most important communicative acts in Te Ao Māori: it establishes identity, relationship, and belonging.
Ngā Paearu Angitū — Success Criteria
- ✅ Students can recite or write their personal pepeha using the correct structural elements with accurate pronunciation.
- ✅ Students can explain the significance of each element of their pepeha — why maunga, awa, waka, iwi, hapū, and ingoa matter as identity markers.
Differentiation & Inclusion
Scaffold support: Provide pepeha sentence frames with blanks for students to complete at the entry level. For students without known iwi or whakapapa connections — due to adoption, Pākehā or non-Māori heritage, or other circumstances — offer a mihimihi alternative that connects to their place, school, and whānau. Extend students who have completed their pepeha by asking them to research the history and significance of their maunga or awa.
ELL / ESOL: Pepeha is a context where home-language connection is a strength, not a barrier — encourage students to reflect on equivalent identity-introduction forms in their own cultural traditions. Pre-teach key kupu (maunga = mountain, awa = river, waka = canoe/ancestral vessel, iwi = tribe, hapū = subtribe, ingoa = name). Model pronunciation using te reo Māori audio resources.
Inclusion: Some students may have complex relationships to identity — adoption, disconnection from whakapapa, or non-Māori backgrounds. Create a safe, non-judgemental space where all identity expressions are honoured. Neurodiverse learners benefit from visual pepeha maps (name → maunga → awa → waka → iwi → hapū → ingoa as a connected diagram). Oral performance can be adapted — some students may prefer written or recorded formats.
Mātauranga Māori lens: Pepeha is not a language exercise — it is a relational and philosophical act. It expresses the understanding that people do not exist as isolated individuals: we are located in landscape, whakapapa, and community. Ko au ko te maunga, ko te maunga ko au — I am the mountain, the mountain is me. This reciprocal relationship between person and place is foundational to Te Ao Māori. Teaching pepeha is teaching identity, belonging, and mana.
Prior knowledge: No prior te reo Māori knowledge required. Students benefit from a brief class discussion about identity and what makes us who we are before beginning their pepeha.
Curriculum alignment
- Te Reo Māori — Communicating: Introduce themselves and others using personal information, including pepeha and mihimihi, drawing on knowledge of their own identity and connections to place.
- Identity, Culture, and Organisation: Understand how identity is shaped by connections to place, whakapapa, and cultural community — and how these connections are expressed through tikanga Māori.