Unit 2 Decolonised History Portfolio · 2025 Edition
Holistic Assessment Framework for Historical Understanding
Assessment Philosophy - Whakatōhea Principles
This assessment honours the principle that every student brings unique perspectives and strengths to understanding history. Rather than testing memory, we assess critical thinking, cultural understanding, and the ability to see historical patterns that connect to today's world.
Portfolio Component Options (Choose 3-4)
Students select components that best showcase their understanding of decolonised Aotearoa history, ensuring authentic assessment that honours diverse learning styles.
1. Historical Agency Portfolio
Document and analyse examples of Māori agency, leadership, and resistance throughout Aotearoa's history.
What Students Create:
- Profile collection of 5-8 Māori leaders across different time periods
- Analysis of strategies used to maintain mana and tino rangatiratanga
- Visual timeline showing continuity of resistance and leadership
- Personal reflection on leadership qualities that resonate today
Success Indicators:
- Demonstrates understanding of Māori agency in historical events
- Analyses diverse forms of leadership and resistance
- Connects historical strategies to contemporary examples
- Shows respect for cultural protocols in presenting information
2. Counter-Narrative Research Project
Challenge colonial historical myths by researching and presenting alternative perspectives on significant events.
What Students Create:
- Research project examining colonial vs Māori perspectives on a chosen historical event
- Analysis of how different sources present the same events
- Creation of alternative narrative highlighting Māori experiences
- Evaluation of why certain perspectives have been marginalized
Success Indicators:
- Critically examines bias in historical sources
- Presents well-researched alternative perspective
- Uses appropriate historical methodology and evidence
- Demonstrates understanding of historiography and power
3. Contemporary Connections Analysis
Link historical patterns and issues to contemporary Aotearoa, showing ongoing relevance of decolonised history.
What Students Create:
- Case study connecting historical injustices to current issues
- Analysis of how historical events shaped modern institutions
- Investigation of ongoing impact on Māori communities
- Proposal for addressing contemporary manifestations of historical issues
Success Indicators:
- Makes clear connections between past and present
- Understands ongoing impact of historical events
- Analyses systemic and structural continuities
- Proposes realistic solutions based on historical understanding
4. Primary Source Investigation
Analyse historical documents, oral histories, and artifacts from multiple perspectives, focusing on Māori voices and experiences.
What Students Create:
- Collection of primary sources representing different perspectives on chosen topic
- Critical analysis of each source's context, purpose, and limitations
- Comparison of how Māori and colonial sources present same events
- Reflection on what voices are missing from the historical record
Success Indicators:
- Demonstrates sophisticated source analysis skills
- Recognises bias and perspective in historical documents
- Prioritises Māori voices and experiences in analysis
- Understands limitations and gaps in historical record
5. Activism Strategy Study
Compare historical and contemporary Māori activism strategies, analysing their effectiveness and evolution over time.
What Students Create:
- Comparative analysis of activism strategies across different time periods
- Case studies of successful and challenging activism campaigns
- Examination of how tactics have evolved with changing contexts
- Personal reflection on qualities of effective activism
Success Indicators:
- Analyses diverse forms of resistance and activism
- Understands relationship between context and strategy
- Evaluates effectiveness of different approaches
- Connects historical activism to contemporary movements
6. Sovereignty Visioning Project
Explore concepts of tino rangatiratanga and self-determination, imagining future possibilities based on historical foundations.
What Students Create:
- Research into historical expressions of Māori sovereignty and self-determination
- Analysis of how colonisation disrupted traditional governance systems
- Investigation of contemporary rangatiratanga movements and initiatives
- Creative vision of future Aotearoa based on tino rangatiratanga principles
Success Indicators:
- Understands traditional Māori governance and decision-making
- Analyses impact of colonisation on Māori self-determination
- Explores contemporary sovereignty movements
- Articulates future possibilities grounded in historical understanding
Assessment Criteria
Cultural Assessment Principles
- Manaakitanga: Assessment should enhance rather than diminish student mana
- Whakatōhea: Multiple pathways to demonstrate understanding
- Ako: Assessment as learning opportunity, not just measurement
- Whakapapa: Honouring connections between knowledge areas and personal experiences
- Tino rangatiratanga: Students have agency in choosing how to demonstrate their learning
📋 Teacher Planning Snapshot
Ngā Whāinga Ako — Learning Intentions
Students will engage with this resource to develop a decolonised 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: Decolonised 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: Decolonising 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.