Lesson Overview
Focus
Indigenous solutions to climate change.
Key Concept
Kaitiakitanga (Guardianship)
Outcome
Applying traditional knowledge to modern problems.
🎥 Media Anchor (8 mins)
Video: Traditional Ecological Knowledge and Indigenous Science
- Which Indigenous climate leadership practice could scale in Aotearoa policy settings?
- How do you evaluate climate solutions beyond carbon metrics alone?
Indigenous Land Stewardship by the Numbers
Kaiako note — the third card is deliberate. Ākonga will meet the 80% figure in campaign material, and the case for Indigenous stewardship does not need it: the first two numbers are real, sourced, and stronger. Stephen Garnett co-authored both the 2018 study that produced the real figures and the 2024 comment that retired the false one. The comment's warning is the discussion question: a claim that cannot be defended "could damage the exact cause that it is being used to support". Ask ākonga — who repeated this without checking, why did nobody stop, and what does it cost a movement when its headline number turns out to be borrowed?
Karakia Tīmatanga | Cultural Opening
"Ko au te taiao, ko te taiao ko au"
I am the environment, the environment is me.
This shows us that we are not separate from nature. If the land is sick, we are sick. If the land is healthy, we are healthy.
Phase 1: Global Climate Warriors (25 minutes)
🌟 Frontline Leaders
Indigenous people are often the first to feel climate change, but also the first to act.
Ursula Rakova (PNG)
The Carteret Islands. Her people are the world's first "climate refugees," moving because of rising seas.
Aka Hansen (Greenland)
Inuit. Watching the Arctic ice melt, changing how her people have hunted for thousands of years.
Davi Kopenawa (Amazon)
Yanomami Shaman. "The forest is our pharmacy." Fighting to keep the 'lungs of the world' breathing.
Phase 2: TEK Laboratory (30 minutes)
🧪 Wisdom Meets Science
Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) isn't just "stories." It is science based on thousands of years of data.
Fire Management 🔥
Traditional: Aboriginal cool burns.
Science: Reduces fuel load, prevents mega-fires.
Soil Farming 🌾
Traditional: Crop rotation, resting land.
Science: Stores more carbon in the soil (Sequestration).
Weather Signs 🌊
Traditional: Reading bird flight and clouds.
Science: Predicting El Niño/La Niña events.
Phase 3: Climate Solutions Summit (25 minutes)
Design Your Solution
Using what you've learned, propose a solution for a local problem.
🌊 The Challenge: Coastlines
Sea levels are rising. How can we protect marae near the sea?
Hint: Think about dunes, planting pingao, or managed retreat.
💧 The Challenge: Water Quality
Rivers are polluted. How can we clean them up?
Hint: Riparian planting (trees on banks), stopping rahui.
Whakamutunga | Reflection
Action Point: "We don't inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children."
Whatungarongaro te tangata toitū te whenua. (The land remains long after people are gone.)
Curriculum alignment
- NZC (2007) · Social Studies · Level 6: "Understand how individuals, groups, and institutions work to promote social justice and human rights."
📋 Teacher Planning Snapshot
Ngā Whāinga Ako — Learning Intentions
Students will investigate global indigenous solidarity movements through a historical lens, using whakapapa of resistance to trace how communities have organised across borders to assert tino rangatiratanga and mana motuhake. This unit connects Aotearoa's struggle for sovereignty to broader international movements for indigenous rights and decolonisation.
Ngā Paearu Angitū — Success Criteria
- ✅ I can analyse and compare perspectives from multiple indigenous resistance movements globally.
- ✅ I can explain how solidarity across difference has strengthened indigenous rights campaigns.
- ✅ I can evaluate the significance of international indigenous solidarity for Aotearoa New Zealand.
Differentiation & Inclusion
Scaffold support: Provide graphic organisers for comparing movements. Entry-level tasks focus on identifying key events; extension tasks require evaluating the effectiveness of solidarity strategies and writing a persuasive historical argument.
ELL / ESOL: Pre-teach key historical terms (sovereignty, solidarity, colonisation, decolonisation). Provide bilingual glossaries where available; allow discussion in home language first.
Inclusion: Use structured note-taking templates and chunked readings. Neurodiverse learners benefit from visual timelines and choice in how they demonstrate understanding — oral, visual, or written formats all valid. Ensure content is presented sensitively given the potential for personal connection to histories of dispossession.
Mātauranga Māori lens: Centre whakapapa as a methodology — tracing the genealogy of resistance ideas across cultures and time. Frame the hīkoi as both a political act and a cultural expression of rangatiratanga. Connect to the whakataukī: "He aha te mea nui o te ao? He tangata, he tangata, he tangata."
Prior knowledge: Best used after foundational study of colonisation and the Treaty of Waitangi. Familiarity with basic historical inquiry skills is recommended.