📚Unit Plans → 📜Decolonised Aotearoa History → 📖Lesson 1: He Wā o Mua
Years 9–10 Tikanga-ā-Iwi / Social Sciences

He Wā o Mua: Who Governed Before the Crown?

A 90-minute source lab in provenance, hapū authority, He Whakaputanga, and claims that say only what the evidence can support.

Language on Trial · Lesson 1

What would count as evidence of government?

This edition runs on the vocabulary of the coloniser and the claims hidden inside it. Lesson 1 opens the method: before asking who governed, ākonga must decide what the word evidence is allowed to mean — and whose records qualify.

  • Word on trial: “evidence” — whose records count as proof of governance?
  • Evidence it produces: A class-built test for evidence that is then applied to pre-1840 governance
Other teaching approach: Source-First Inquiry →

🕘 Lesson at a Glance | Te Hōtaka

Do NowTest the frame⏱ 5 min 1 · Build the lensGovernance and framing⏱ 10 min 2 · Provenance firstRead around the source⏱ 15 min 3 · TriangulateEvidence + interpretation⏱ 25 min 4 · Frame flipRewrite without overclaiming⏱ 15 min 5 · Bridge forwardAuthority and representation⏱ 15 min ExitClaim, limit, question⏱ 5 min

Lesson Overview | Tirohanga Whānui

Ākonga do not receive a story about pre-Crown governance. They build and test a claim. Using the printable source lab, they distinguish primary evidence from later interpretation, identify what each source can establish, and write a conclusion that keeps its regional and temporal limits visible.

Learning Intentions | Ngā Whāinga Ako

  • Distinguish governance from one centralised model of government.
  • Analyse how provenance and framing shape a historical source.
  • Construct a scoped claim using evidence from at least two sources.

⚡ Do Now · What would count as evidence?

⏱ 5 min

Put this claim on the board as a claim to test, not as a fact:

“Before British rule, Aotearoa had no settled government.”

Run it

  1. Notice (1 min): underline the two words carrying the biggest hidden assumptions.
  2. Specify (2 min): write one thing the author would need to define before the claim could be judged.
  3. Evidence (2 min): name one kind of source that could support or challenge the claim.

Keep the responses: ākonga return to the same sentence in Activity 4.

Activity 1 · Build the Lens

⏱ 10 min

What it is: a fast concept sort so ākonga can recognise a colonial definition hidden inside apparently neutral language.

GovernanceHow a group makes decisions, exercises authority, manages relationships, and meets obligations.
Centralised stateA government whose law-making authority is concentrated in institutions that claim jurisdiction across a territory.
Hapū authorityAuthority exercised through descent groups, relationships, leadership, resources, obligations, and consent; its form and history differ by hapū.
FrameThe language and boundaries that make some evidence visible and push other evidence out of view.

Run it

  1. Sort (3 min): pairs decide which definitions describe a form of governance and which describe the broader idea.
  2. Test (4 min): apply each definition to the Do Now claim. Which definition has the author silently chosen?
  3. Rephrase (3 min): replace “no government” with a neutral question that evidence could answer.

🪶 Cultural integrity: these are analytical entry points, not a complete account of any iwi or hapū political system. Do not use a generic diagram as a substitute for local mana whenua knowledge, and do not ask Māori ākonga to supply that authority.

Activity 2 · Provenance Before Content

⏱ 15 min

What it is: ākonga read around each source before they read through it.

He Wā o Mua Source LabThree source cards, provenance grid, scope test, and claim builder · one per ākonga
Open printable
Primary evidenceCreated in the period being studied. It reveals a position or act from that time; it does not explain itself.
Later interpretationCreated later to select, explain, connect, or contest evidence. Its author and method still matter.

Run it

  1. Label (5 min): for Sources A–C, record creator, date, source type, audience, and purpose.
  2. Predict (4 min): before reading the source text, predict one strength and one limit created by its provenance.
  3. Check (6 min): read each card and revise the prediction. Circle every place where the card reports interpretation rather than direct evidence.

Teacher listen-for: “primary” does not mean unbiased, and “secondary” does not mean weak.

Activity 3 · Triangulate Governance

⏱ 25 min

What it is: ākonga use three sources for different jobs instead of stacking three quotations that all appear to say the same thing.

Run it

  1. Extract (7 min): from each source, write one precise piece of evidence about decision-making or authority.
  2. Assign a job (5 min): label each piece structure, constitutional assertion, or later interpretation.
  3. Connect (7 min): draw arrows showing how one source supports, contextualises, or limits another. Write the relationship on each arrow.
  4. Scope test (6 min): decide whether the set supports a claim about Ngāpuhi rangatira, northern hapū, Māori political organisation more broadly, or all of Aotearoa. Cross out any reach the evidence cannot justify.
Sources checked 13 July 2026: Rāwiri Taonui, Tribal organisation, Te Ara — The Encyclopedia of New Zealand (published 8 February 2005) · He Whakaputanga — Declaration of Independence, NZHistory (updated 12 May 2026) · He Whakaputanga document viewer, NZHistory.

Activity 4 · Frame Flip, Without a New Overclaim

⏱ 15 min

What it is: ākonga return to the Do Now and replace its hidden definition with an evidence-led statement.

Run it

  1. Diagnose (3 min): name what “settled government” assumes government must look like.
  2. Rewrite (7 min): write two sentences: a claim about authority, then a sentence naming which sources support it.
  3. Limit (3 min): add This evidence does not prove… and complete it honestly.
  4. Peer test (2 min): a partner underlines the evidence, boxes the scope word, and stars the limit.

Strong shape: “The sources show… [scoped claim]. Source A establishes… while Source B… Source C helps interpret… This set cannot establish…”

Activity 5 · Bridge Forward: What Becomes Invisible?

⏱ 15 min

What it is: a short bridge from pre-Crown authority to the colonial representation question in the curriculum anchor.

Run it

  1. Read (3 min): read the curriculum statement in the source lab once for the change in political rules.
  2. Compare (5 min): make a two-column list: authority visible in today’s sources / authority recognised by a property franchise and centralised legislature.
  3. Infer (4 min): explain what becomes politically invisible when only the second framework counts as representation.
  4. Question forward (3 min): write one research question about voting, communal landholding, or representation that this lesson has not yet answered.

Boundary: do not turn the curriculum statement into a mini-lecture. The unresolved question is the hand-forward into later inquiry.

Exit · Claim, Limit, Question

⏱ 5 min
  1. Claim: one sentence answering “Who governed before the Crown?”
  2. Limit: one sentence saying how far today’s evidence reaches.
  3. Question: one question about how colonial political rules changed whose authority counted.

Fast read: collect the slips in three piles — claim needs evidence / scope needs tightening / ready to carry forward.

🎯 Curriculum Links | Te Hononga ki te Marautanga

Prior-learning anchor used at Years 9–10 depth: ākonga establish traditional leadership structures, then ask what colonial representation frameworks made invisible.

Exclusion of most Māori men from the political system and voting due to the property-based franchise and Māori communal landholding practices. Traditional leadership structures based on mana and whakapapa were not incorporated into colonial governance frameworks, contributing to differing understandings and reduced representation.

Open the curriculum companion and teaching map →

📦 Materials & Resources
📊 Assessment Framework

This lesson uses formative evidence only.

  • LI 1: Activity 1 rewrite distinguishes governance from a centralised state.
  • LI 2: Activity 2 provenance grid correctly separates the 1835 document from later Te Ara/NZHistory interpretation.
  • LI 3: Activity 4 paragraph cites at least two sources, names a defensible scope, and includes a real limit.
🚀 Extension Activity

Open the He Whakaputanga document viewer. Compare the signed te reo Māori document with the English text presented alongside it. Identify one translation or editorial choice that would require further investigation before it could be used as evidence.

🔗 Unit Progression | Te Ara o Ngā Akoranga

Today’s evidence establishes that authority did not begin with Crown institutions. A later inquiry can now ask how Te Tiriti texts, land law, the property franchise, and Crown institutions changed which forms of authority were legally recognised. Keep each exit question; they are the student-generated brief for that next inquiry. Lesson 2 takes the first step: the two texts of te Tiriti, verbatim →

📋 Teacher Planning Snapshot

Paearu Angitu | Success Criteria

  • I can explain why “no government” hides a definition rather than reports a neutral fact.
  • I can identify the creator, date, type, and purpose of each source.
  • I can use two sources to make a claim and state what the evidence does not prove.

Differentiation for this lesson

Inclusion guidance

  • Reading load: read Source B aloud once; allow pairs to split Sources A and C, then teach each other.
  • Language support: use the claim frame in Activity 4 and let ākonga rehearse orally before writing.
  • Executive function: complete the provenance grid one source at a time and reveal the next card only after the first row is finished.
  • Extension: require a distinction between evidence about Ngāpuhi/Te Whakaminenga and a wider claim about Māori political organisation.
  • Cultural safety: never position Māori ākonga as live sources or ask them to resolve disagreement between published accounts.