Why this page exists | He aha ai
Being ahead of the conversation with whānau is a cultural-safety practice: it protects students from carrying the explanation home alone, and it turns the most common source of friction — surprise — into partnership. This kit has four parts: a letter to adapt and send before the unit begins, activities whānau can do together at home, a resource list where every item has been checked, and straight answers to the questions whānau actually ask.
The introduction letter | Te reta whakataki
Send this home before the first lesson. It is a template — replace the bracketed parts, cut what does not fit your context, and put it in your own voice before it goes out. The one thing not to cut is the invitation to talk: the letter works because it opens a door, not because it delivers information.
Kia ora e te whānau,
I'm writing to let you know about a unit we are beginning in Social Studies: Decolonised Aotearoa History. It teaches the history of Aotearoa with Māori perspectives at the centre — perspectives that were left out of school history for a long time.
What will students learn? Students will examine what the historical sources actually say: the sophistication of Māori society before European arrival, what the te reo Māori and English texts of te Tiriti o Waitangi each say and where they differ, and the long line of Māori resistance and the movement toward redress. The method matters as much as the content — students check where every source comes from before trusting what it says, and they finish the unit by writing an essay that tests a received story against the evidence.
Why teach this? The national curriculum now expects all schools to teach Aotearoa New Zealand's histories, including the parts that are uncomfortable. We teach it because students deserve history built from evidence rather than from the stories that happened to get repeated, and because understanding how this country came to be the way it is helps young people take part in it well.
What can you expect? Some of this content is heavy — colonisation, loss of land, and racism are part of the record. We use careful practices: content warnings before sensitive material, time to process, a genuine right to pass, and a deliberate balance between histories of harm and histories of Māori strategy, innovation and agency. Māori students will never be asked to speak for all Māori or to educate their classmates — we centre Māori voices from the historical sources, not from the students in the room.
How can you support learning at home? Ask what surprised them. Share your own learning — many of us were taught a different version of this history, and unlearning it together is powerful. If the news covers Treaty settlements or related kaupapa while the unit runs, talk about it over dinner.
For Māori whānau: if your whānau carries stories connected to what we are studying and you are comfortable sharing, I would be honoured to hear from you — and there is no pressure at all. If you have any concerns about how this content might land for your child, please contact me and we will work it out together.
Questions and kōrero are welcome at any time: [email] · [phone] · happy to meet in person.
Ngā mihi nui,
[Your name]
[Your school]
Activities to do together | Ngā mahi ā-whānau
These are optional and unassessed. Each one gives the student something small to bring back to class, which is what makes home kōrero visible in the classroom without grading anyone's family.
1. Read the two texts together
Read the te reo Māori and English texts of te Tiriti o Waitangi side by side — the unit's own printable source lab has both, quoted verbatim from the Treaty of Waitangi Act 1975. Then talk: what differences do you notice? If you signed an agreement and the other party's version said something different, how would you feel? What would honouring te Tiriti look like today?
Student brings back: one thing someone at home said that surprised them, and one question the whānau still has.
2. Learn about local iwi and hapū
Whose whenua do you live on? Together, find out what happened to their land, whether there has been a Treaty settlement, and what the iwi is working on now — most iwi have a strong online presence, and the Waitangi Tribunal website lets you search by iwi. If a public iwi event or exhibition is on nearby, go together.
Student brings back: three facts about local iwi, and one way they are exercising tino rangatiratanga today.
3. Meet the movements through people
If someone in your wider whānau took part in the 1975 Land March, the Bastion Point occupation, kōhanga reo, settlement negotiations or a contemporary movement, ask them about it: why they got involved, what it was like, what it achieved, what they would tell young people now. If not, watch one of the documentaries in the resource list below together — oral histories on NZ On Screen do the same work.
Student brings back: a one-page summary of the conversation or viewing.
4. Look at one settlement honestly
Pick one Treaty settlement — Waikato-Tainui (1995), Ngāi Tahu (1998) and Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei (2012) are well documented. Find out what was taken, what the claim asked for, and what the settlement returned. Then have the hard conversation: does the arithmetic look like justice? What can a settlement never return?
Student brings back: the comparison, and a sentence starting "I think this settlement is / is not justice because…"
Resources for whānau | He rauemi mā te whānau
Every item on this list has been checked — titles, authors and dates are real.
- Books: Ranginui Walker, Ka Whawhai Tonu Mātou: Struggle Without End · Claudia Orange, The Treaty of Waitangi · Michael King, The Penguin History of New Zealand · Hirini Moko Mead, Tikanga Māori: Living by Māori Values · Vincent O'Malley, The Great War for New Zealand (Bridget Williams Books, 2016 — the deep dive, for keen readers).
- Watch together: Bastion Point: The Untold Story (1999, NZ On Screen) · The Price of Peace (2015, dir. Kim Webby, on the Tūhoe settlement era).
- Websites: NZ History (Manatū Taonga) · Waitangi Tribunal · Te Ara — The Encyclopedia of New Zealand · NZ On Screen.
- Places: Te Papa Tongarewa, Auckland War Memorial Museum Tāmaki Paenga Hira and your regional museum · Waitangi Treaty Grounds · local marae, only where there is an invitation or welcome.
Questions whānau ask | Ngā pātai a te whānau
These are for kaiako to draw on in conversations and hui — real questions, answered straight.
- Is this unit anti-Pākehā, or will it make my child feel guilty?
- No. It teaches what the historical record shows and how to check it. Guilt is not the goal and not the method: the unit focuses on understanding how systems worked and on what informed people can do now. Discomfort sometimes comes with accurate history; personal blame is not part of it.
- My child says they are "unlearning" things. Is that okay?
- Yes — that is the unit working. For generations a particular version of this history was taught as settled fact. When students check the sources and find the record says something different, revising what they thought they knew is exactly the skill the unit teaches.
- Why dwell on the negative parts of our history?
- The unit spends at least as much time on Māori strategy, innovation, resistance and renewal as on harm — that balance is deliberate. But the harm is part of the record and the resistance makes no sense without it. As James Baldwin wrote, "Not everything that is faced can be changed; but nothing can be changed until it is faced."
- Will this help or hurt my child's NCEA results?
- Help. The unit's core work — evaluating sources, checking provenance, building an evidence-led argument in writing — is precisely the skill set senior history assessment rewards. The counter-narrative essay is deliberate preparation for that kind of thinking.
- I'm Māori. Will my child be singled out or expected to speak for all Māori?
- No, and this is a firm commitment. Māori perspectives enter the room through historical sources, not through the Māori students in it. If your child chooses to share whānau knowledge, we make space with care — but it is always an offer, never an expectation.
- What if I disagree with the unit's perspective?
- Come and talk — genuinely. The unit's method is its best defence: it puts primary sources in front of students and asks them to reason from the exact words. Any claim in the unit can be traced to its source, and kaiako can show you the materials.
- How do I support my child if the content is upsetting?
- Validate the feeling ("it's okay to be angry or sad about injustice"), process it together ("what's on your mind?"), and move toward agency ("what could we do about it?"). If your child needs more support than home kōrero, contact the school — the pathways are already in place.
Where this fits | Te wāhi e uru ai
The classroom side of this kaupapa — cultural safety, tikanga protocols and trauma-informed practice — lives in the Teacher Companion. The assessment arc whānau will hear about at home, including the counter-narrative essay, is in the Assessment Companion.