Audio & video for this unit
Every item below was opened and checked before it was listed here: the title, the host, the date, the duration, whether it can be embedded, what its rights statement actually says, and whether it is free without a login. Nothing is listed that could not be opened.
This unit is well served by archival audio in particular. Several of these recordings are the people themselves — Dame Whina Cooper describing the march, Joe Hawke on Takaparawhau, Ngā Tamatoa in 1972. That is a different order of evidence from a documentary about them.
Three things to know before you plan around any of this
1. NZ On Screen is link-only. The site offers no embed code and nothing can be downloaded. Every NZ On Screen item has to be opened in a browser tab in class. All of them below are free, with no login and no rental, except where marked.
2. The RNZ “Treaty of Waitangi collection” items are the best primary audio here — and the tightest on rights. Their pages offer an embed code, but they also state “this audio is not downloadable due to copyright restrictions”, and the collection index says no audio may be posted to a website, distributed to a third party or broadcast. That tension is RNZ's, not yours. Link to them. Do not embed them. If you want to embed, ask RNZ / Sound Archives Ngā Taonga Kōrero.
3. NZHistory and Te Ara's Creative Commons licence covers the TEXT only. Both state that all non-text content is subject to specific conditions, and individual photos and audio carry credits such as “Not to be reused without permission”. Playing them in class from the page is fine. Copying them into your own handout is not.
Sequencing the hard material
Much of this unit's best evidence shows state violence against protesters. You can teach 1981 through sound first: the Te Ara Gisborne clip is 59 seconds with a full transcript, and Ngā Taonga's “Covering the Tour” recordings are radio actuality. Both carry the event without putting baton footage in front of a 14-year-old cold. Save Patu!, 1981 — A Country at War and the Bastion Point eviction until after students have context, and preview them.
Nearly every item here shows or is voiced by people who have died — Whina Cooper, Joe Hawke, Eva Rickard, Syd Jackson, Moana Jackson, Merata Mita, Titewhai Harawira, and kaumātua recorded in 1974 and 1984. Items involving tūpāpaku are marked below. Ngā Taonga's own rule for Taonga Māori material is explicit: archive consultation with kaitiaki — iwi, hapū and/or whānau — is required for re-use. A kaiako Māori should see the Bastion Point and Whina Cooper items before they are played.
Lesson 1 · What is a right?
human rights ≠ civil rights ≠ Indigenous rights ≠ Te Tiriti rights ≠ tino rangatiratanga
Lost in Translation 2 — Te Tiriti o Waitangi
Mike King on the drafting of Te Tiriti and its contested translation, plus He Whakaputanga. The cleanest way to hold Te Tiriti rights and tino rangatiratanga apart from human and civil rights — which is the whole job of this lesson.
🪶 Features Moana Jackson (d. 2022). Kaiako Māori should be aware before playing.
Tangata Whenua — Waikato
The Kīngitanga formed to halt land sales and assert Māori authority — collective authority as a lived thing rather than a definition on a slide. Short enough for a starter.
🪶 Barry Barclay, Michael King and the kaumātua interviewed in 1974 are deceased. Kaiako Māori review recommended. Restored by Ngā Taonga in 2023.
About the Treaty
First-party source setting out kāwanatanga against sovereignty, and rangatiratanga against property rights, with both texts excerpted. This is the distinction the lesson turns on, stated by the body that adjudicates it.
Lesson 2 · Why was resurgence necessary?
The causal bridge — not a whole colonisation unit
Koha — Raupatu, The Loss of Land
The strongest raupatu explainer found: 66 million acres in 1840 down to under 3 million a century later, via the Wakefield system, the invasion of Waikato and the Native Land Court. Reporter Tainui Stephens with Professor Keith Sorrenson.
⚠️ Discusses military invasion and dispossession. No graphic footage.
He Kākano Ahau, ep. 1 — Tapu Te Ranga Marae
Post-war urban migration told by an urban Māori host, Kahu Kutia. Answers “why did whānau leave the papakāinga” in a register Year 10 students will actually listen to.
Mild: gang members, displacement, the 2019 fire.
Eva Rickard
Connects raupatu to the Raglan golf course — a second front beyond Bastion Point, and useful for showing that this was not one campaign but many.
🪶 Eva Rickard (d. 1997). Kaiako Māori review.
Lesson 3 · Language as resistance
Ngā Tamatoa, Te Reo Māori Society, the 1972 petition
This is the best-served lesson in the unit.
Nationwide — News in Te Reo Māori
Derek Fox delivering the first televised te reo bulletin, and arguing that the state broadcaster owes te reo speakers a service. Four minutes, primary source, and it puts the whole argument in front of students before you have said anything.
Te Wiki o te Reo Māori — three archival recordings
Te Puna Wai Kōrero from Sept 1975 — RNZ's Haare Williams at Windy Ridge Primary, where te reo was being taught from 1974, before kōhanga reo existed. Plus Morning Report from 1984 and a 1964 radio advertisement in te reo. Short enough to use whole.
🪶 For Taonga Māori material Ngā Taonga require archive consultation with kaitiaki for re-use.
Ngā Tamatoa Movement
A contemporaneous recording — the movement in its own moment rather than remembering itself thirty years later. Three minutes.
Ngā Tamatoa: 40 Years On
Rawiri Paratene — sixteen when he joined Ngā Tamatoa — interviews Hone Harawira, Tāme Iti and Larry Parr, woven with 1970s news archive of the te-reo-in-schools campaign. Also serves Lesson 2.
Māori language petition, 1972
The petition being delivered on 14 September 1972. The page also carries a detailed timeline contributed by John McCaffery and Joe Te Rito of Te Reo Māori Society — excellent kaiako background.
Image credit: Fairfax Sunday Newspapers, Auckland Star collection — “Not to be reused without permission.” Show it from the page.
Ngā Tamatoa members on Māori language in schools
Toro Waaka and Larry Parr, including resistance the campaign met “even from his own”. Useful precisely because it complicates a heroes-versus-government story.
Standing up for te reo Māori — a founding member of Te Reo Māori Society
First-person account, including the public hostility the petitioners met.
Lesson 4 · Whenua and the 1975 Land March
Te Rōpū Matakite, Dame Whina Cooper
Māori Land March — Whina Cooper
Dame Whina Cooper's own voice, describing crossing the Auckland harbour bridge during the march. Five minutes. Nothing else in this unit is closer to the event.
🪶 Dame Whina Cooper (d. 1994). A kaiako Māori should introduce this.
Te Rōpū Matakite march to Parliament, 1975
The march arriving at Parliament on 13 October 1975 to present the Memorial of Right, with Whina Cooper at the end. Eighty-five seconds.
Credit: Ngā Taonga Sound and Vision, extract from Te Matakite o Aotearoa, Seehear Films 1975, courtesy of Geoff Steven. Not to be reused without permission.
Te Matakite o Aotearoa — The Māori Land March
The contemporaneous chronicle, filmed on the march — interviews with Whina Cooper at 79, Eva Rickard and Tama Poata. Too long for one period; use it for excerpts, or as the source the 85-second clip above is taken from.
🪶 Whina Cooper, Eva Rickard and Tama Poata are all deceased. Kaiako Māori review.
Koha — Whina Cooper, part one
Whina Cooper in 1983 recalling her first protest at eighteen, the whistle from Sir Āpirana Ngata, and working with Princess Te Puea. This is what turns “the old lady who led the march” into a life with sixty years of politics behind it.
1975 Land March — commemorating 40 years
Panel discussion with 1975 archival recordings inside it. Supplies the reasoning behind why no placards and why walk the length of the country — strong material for a source-analysis task.
Lesson 5 · Takaparawhau / Bastion Point
Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei, Joe Hawke
Takaparawhā (Bastion Point) — 40 years on
Exceptional construction: it carries the 1978 radio programme hosted by Whai Ngata inside a 2018 frame, so students hear the event and the memory of it in one item. It also states the causal chain this unit needs — occupation, then the first retrospective Waitangi Tribunal claim, then the 1988 return with compensation.
⚠️ Police and army forcibly removing hundreds of people.
🪶 Whai Ngata (d. 2016), Joe Hawke (d. 2022).
Bastion Point — The Untold Story
Interviews with Joe Hawke and former police, produced by Sharon Hawke. It contains footage drawn from Bastion Point: Day 507 — which is the only free access to that footage anyone could find. Covers how the land was taken and how sewage was withheld.
⚠️ The eviction by police and army. Preview before use.
🪶 Joe Hawke (d. 2022). Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei protocols apply; kaiako Māori review.
Reclaiming Bastion Point — Roadside Stories
Narrated overview including archival audio of Joe Hawke explaining why the issue mattered. The transcript on the page is itself a usable reading if you would rather not play footage.
Land of a Thousand Lovers
Made during the occupation rather than after it — the argument as it was actually being had in 1977, including the 1885 taking “for defence purposes”. Good for asking how a live dispute gets reported.
Lesson 6 · The 1981 Springbok Tour
Rights abroad, racism at home
Anti-tour march, 1981
Live radio news commentary from the first match at Gisborne, 22 July 1981, as protesters breach the fence. One minute, transcript included, and no visual gore — the best way to put students inside the event before showing them anything.
⚠️ Describes crowd and police conflict in real time. Tense, not graphic. Audio may not be re-used — play it from the page.
Covering the Tour — three archival recordings
RNZ actuality from Hamilton on 25 July 1981 — the pitch invasion — and the Molesworth Street baton charge. Pairs directly with the Te Ara Gisborne clip to build the whole tour from sound.
⚠️ Audio of baton charges on protesters.
1981 — A Country at War
The best two-sided source found: firsthand accounts from both protesters and police after Gisborne, Hamilton and Auckland. Crucially it keeps the lesson in the Aotearoa frame — for Māori protesters the tour raised questions about racism at home.
⚠️ Explicit discussion of racism in New Zealand; bloody aftermath described.
Patu!
Merata Mita's landmark film, made from inside the protest movement. The definitive text for this lesson — but it is nearly two hours and it is not a whole-class-cold film.
⚠️ The NZ On Screen page itself carries “parental guidance recommended for younger viewers”. Extensive police violence. Select excerpts and preview them.
1981 Springbok tour — feature
The narrative spine and the numbers: 56 days, the largest civil disturbance since 1951, more than 150,000 people at over 200 demonstrations in 28 centres, 1,500 charged. Sub-pages cover the Gleneagles Agreement and a day-by-day tour diary.
Melani Anae: “We said we weren't going to take it anymore”
Widens the frame to Pasifika activism — the Polynesian Panthers and their role in the 1981 Patu Squad, and the Māori–Pacific alliance behind it.
⚠️ Dawn raids, police harassment, racial abuse. Preview this one. It will land personally for Pasifika students.
Lesson 7 · Protest becomes institutions
The Treaty of Waitangi Act 1975 and the Waitangi Tribunal
Be aware: this is the thinnest lesson for free audio-visual material. NZ On Screen's catalogue contains no Waitangi Tribunal content at all — their own search returns zero results for it. These are what exist.
Waitangi Tribunal — interview with Eddie Durie
The Tribunal explaining itself in its own era, covering Kaituna, Waiheke, Bastion Point, Manukau and Motunui. A direct bridge from Lesson 5 into Lesson 7.
The Waitangi Tribunal's losing battle
Explains the Tribunal's non-binding recommendation power clearly — which is exactly the crux of “did protest actually become power?”. Pairs with the Durie interview as a then-and-now set.
⚠️ Current politics. Present it as one view, not as settled fact.
Te Karere — Waitangi Day 1984
Derek Fox and Whai Ngata follow a hīkoi protesting the celebration of Waitangi Day. Shows the moment when protest and institution were still in open conflict — nine years after the Act.
🪶 The NZ On Screen page carries its own notice: leaders appear who have since passed away, including Hepi Te Heuheu, Robert Mahuta, Pumi Taituha, Sir James Hēnare and Kingi Ihaka. Kaiako Māori review.
Lesson 8 · What causes social change?
The culminating inquiry
Radicals
Syd Jackson, Hone Harawira, Ken Mair, Mike Smith, Annette Sykes, Eva Rickard and Joe Hawke explaining the kaupapa behind their activism. It answers this lesson's question in the activists' own words rather than a commentator's.
🪶 Syd Jackson (d. 2007), Eva Rickard (d. 1997), Joe Hawke (d. 2022) all appear. Kaiako Māori review.
Hīkoi — Inside Out
The 2004 foreshore and seabed hīkoi, followed through its two young leaders. Brings the 1975 → 2004 arc into living memory and lets students ask whether the 1975 method still works.
Ngā rōpū tautohetohe — Māori protest movements
The through-line in one place: Hōne Heke and the flagstaff, Parihaka disrupting surveys, the 1975 hīkoi, the 506-day occupation of Takaparawhau, and Ihumātao. Exactly the sweep Lesson 8 needs to compare methods across two centuries.
Also re-use here
The three long RNZ retrospectives — the Land March at 40, Takaparawhā at 40, and the HART veterans on how the anti-tour campaign was organised — are each explicitly a why did it work discussion. They are better Lesson 8 material than anything made about social change in the abstract.
Honest gaps — things that were looked for and are not there
- Bastion Point: Day 507 (Merata Mita, 1980) is not freely available. It is not on NZ On Screen, and the Ngā Taonga catalogue record (ref F9380, 27 min) states “item unavailable online”. The nearest free substitute is Bastion Point — The Untold Story, which contains footage drawn from it.
- No standalone kōhanga reo item exists in any of these collections. Kōhanga reo appears inside the petition retrospectives but has no source of its own. That is a real gap in Lesson 3, and worth naming to students rather than papering over.
- RNZ's Black Sheep does not cover this ground — it is about controversial and villainous figures, and has no episode on Māori protest or resurgence.
- Two Ngā Taonga catalogue items are worth a request-a-copy enquiry: ref 45731, a Māori Programme broadcast on 27 September 1972 featuring Rawiri Paratene of Ngā Tamatoa presenting the petition — the closest thing to a recording of the day itself; and ref 40403, Te Puna Wai Kōrero on Ngāti Whātua and Bastion Point, 25 May 1978.
- The Haka Party Incident (2024, dir. Katie Wolfe) is on NZ On Screen but is a $6.99 rental and rated for mature audiences. Two free excerpts are on the page — the 3-minute opening and a 1-minute montage — and those are the only usable assets without paying.