Kaitiaki Tikanga: Kia ora. We have built three walls of our whare. Now we turn to the most sacred part: Taha Wairua. This is about your spirit, your values, your inner essence. We call this your `mauri`. It is your life force. Some things nourish our mauri; some things drain it.
Kaitiaki Hauora: And in the digital world, many things are designed to drain your mauri without you even noticing. Have you ever finished scrolling and felt tired, empty, or just... blah? That is the feeling of your mauri being depleted. Today, we learn to notice this. We learn to become guardians of our own energy.
Knowledge (Māramatanga)
- Define 'mauri' as a personal life force, energy, and essence.
- Understand that different digital activities can either drain or restore one's mauri.
- Recognise that the 'attention economy' is designed to extract our energy and focus.
Skills (Pūkenga)
- Mindfully self-assess their own energy and emotional state (mauri).
- Analyse their digital habits to identify "mauri drainers" and "mauri restorers."
- Create a personal plan to protect and nurture their mauri.
Values (Wairuatanga)
- Value their own energy and attention as a precious taonga.
- Develop a sense of agency and self-determination (rangatiratanga) over their digital lives.
- Appreciate the importance of rest and restoration for their overall well-being.
Media Anchor | Watch & Discuss (10 minutes)
Video Anchor: The significance of Te Whare Tapa Whā - Sir Mason Durie
Use this wellbeing frame to support mauri restoration planning after digital overload or harm.
- What specific practices restore your mauri after high-stress digital periods?
- How can classmates support each other's restoration without judgement?
Whakatūwhera | The Energy Meter (15 minutes)
Main Activity: Human Barometer
- Setup (5 mins): The teacher draws a large "energy meter" on the board, from "Drained" (empty) to "Energised" (full).
- Activity (10 mins): The teacher calls out different activities (digital and non-digital). After each one, students move to stand at the point on the energy meter that reflects how that activity makes them feel.
- "Scrolling through TikTok for 30 minutes."
- "Playing a favourite sport with friends."
- "Watching a funny movie with your whānau."
- "Getting into an argument in a comment section."
- Discussion: Why do some digital activities drain us while others energise us? This introduces the concept of mauri.
Main Learning | The Mauri Audit (35 minutes)
Main Activity: Tracking the Flow of Energy
- Introducing the Audit (5 mins): The teacher introduces the 'My Mauri Audit' handout. "This is a tool for you to become a scientist of your own energy. For the next 24 hours, you will be a kaitiaki of your mauri, noticing where it goes."
- Guided Practice (15 mins): As a class, students fill out the first section of the handout: "My Digital Habits." They list the top 3-5 apps or digital activities they spend the most time on. Then, for just ONE of those activities, the teacher guides them through the analysis questions on the handout.
- The 24-Hour Challenge (15 mins): The teacher explains the main task: For the next 24 hours, students are to use the handout to mindfully track their top 3 digital activities. They will note how they felt before, and how they felt after. They will then analyse their findings and create a "Mauri Protection Plan."
Consolidation | Sharing Mauri Protection Strategies (20 minutes)
Main Activity: A Kete of Strategies
- Think-Pair-Share (15 mins): The next day, after completing their audit, students share their "Mauri Protection Plan" with a partner. The goal is to share strategies and learn from each other.
- Building the Kete (5 mins): The teacher asks students to share one effective strategy they heard. These are collected on the board in a "Kete of Mauri Strategies" for the whole class to use. Examples might include: "Set a timer," "Turn off autoplay," "Follow accounts that make me feel good," "Unfollow accounts that make me feel drained."
Whakakapi | You are the Kaitiaki (5 minutes)
Main Activity: Final Reflection
- Kaitiaki Tikanga concludes: "Your mauri is your most precious taonga. No one can guard it for you. Only you can be the kaitiaki of your own life force. The whakataukī says, 'An active soul is a healthy soul.' This means being an active, conscious chooser in your digital life, not a passive consumer. Choose to protect your mauri."
📋 Teacher Planning Snapshot
Ngā Whāinga Ako — Learning Intentions
Students will engage with this resource to explore digital kaitiakitanga — applying tikanga Māori principles of guardianship, manaakitanga, and whanaungatanga to their digital lives, spaces, and technologies.
Ngā Paearu Angitū — Success Criteria
- ✅ Students can explain how kaitiakitanga applies to digital environments and online communities.
- ✅ Students can connect tikanga Māori values to ethical decision-making in digital contexts.
Differentiation & Inclusion
Scaffold support: Provide sentence starters and visual frameworks to scaffold access at the entry level. Offer extension tasks that deepen ethical analysis — for example, comparing digital tikanga principles to international AI ethics frameworks.
ELL / ESOL: Pre-teach key kupu (kaitiakitanga, manaakitanga, whanaungatanga, tikanga) with bilingual glossaries. Allow students to express ideas in their home language first before translating to English.
Inclusion: Chunk tasks and provide clear visual instructions. Neurodiverse learners benefit from structured choice in how they demonstrate understanding (e.g., verbal, written, or visual). Affirm diverse digital experiences as valid starting points.
Mātauranga Māori lens: Digital kaitiakitanga frames technology through Te Ao Māori — our digital spaces are extensions of our marae, our data is part of our whakapapa, and our online behaviour reflects our mana. Tikanga Māori provides a powerful ethical compass for navigating the digital world.
Prior knowledge: No specialist digital technology knowledge required for entry-level engagement. Best used after introductory lessons on tikanga Māori or as part of a digital technologies unit.
Curriculum alignment
- Te Mātaiaho (2025) · Technology · Phase 4 (Years 9–10) · Design, Make, and Innovate (Knowledge): “Digital content and data must be created, stored, and shared ethically and legally, respecting privacy, attribution, intellectual property, and local cultural considerations.”
- NZC (2007) · Technology · Level 5: “Understand how people’s perceptions and acceptance of technology impact on technological developments and how and why technological knowledge becomes codified.”