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Level 1 History: Kia Mau and the Māori Battalion

Rationale

This unit of work is designed to complement a history teaching programme at NCEA Level 1. It focuses specifically on the causes, events and consequences of the Māori Battalion’s participation in World War Two, using this resource Kia Mau and other relevant resources. It also asks students to compare perspectives on the Māori Battalion from different people and groups, as well as the students’ own perceptions.

Achievement objectives

Achievement objective 6.1

Students will gain knowledge, skills, and experience to:

  • understand how the causes and consequences of past events that are of significance to New Zealanders shape the lives of people and society.

Indicators:

  • Selects and explains the causes of past events
  • Orders past events in terms of importance
  • Identifies the consequences of past events
  • Links the causes and consequences

Achievement objective 6.2

Students will gain knowledge, skills, and experience to:

  • understand how people’s perspectives on past events that are of significance to New Zealanders differ.

Indicators:

  • Identifies and describes perspectives on a past event
  • Debates an event from different perspectives
  • Makes links or contrasts between the experiences of people in the past and their own experiences
  • Compares their experiences with those of people in the past

Prior learning

Students could have prior knowledge of:

  • The origins of World War Two
  • Previous conflicts in which New Zealand and/or Māori troops fought, for example the New Zealand Wars, the Boer War, World War One
  • The New Zealand Expeditionary Force and its role in the allied war plans

Indicators, lesson ideas and resource links

Achievement objective 6.1: Understand how the causes and consequences of past events that are of significance to New Zealanders shape the lives of people and society.

Indicators: Lesson ideas - students could: Resource links:
1. Selects and explains the causes of past events
  • Select and explain what caused many Māori to volunteer, and the formation of the Māori Battalion.
  •  Discuss the push for a separate battalion from the main body; debate the reasons why some Māori refused (legacy of the New Zealand Wars) and the eagerness of many Māori to join (opportunity for adventure, genuine desire to honour obligations under the Treaty)
2. Orders past events in terms of importance
  • Put in order, on a timeline, the contribution of Māori to modern warfare throughout history. Discuss how these contributions could be ordered in terms of significance; for example, by number of casualties.
  • Study the Māori contribution to the New Zealand Wars (both anti-Government and kūpapa), the Boer War and World War One.
  • Describe the role of the Pioneer Battalion and its importance as a precedent for the Māori Battalion.
  •  Extension: can we justify the process of “ordering”, by categorising people’s sacrifices in the past?
3. Identifies the consequences of past events
  • Describe the consequences for returning Māori soldiers, both positive and negative. For example a loss of leadership, social upheaval, increase or decrease of mana in NZ society.
4. Links the causes and consequences
  • Link the causes and consequences of the Māori Battalion together. For example many Māori went to war through a sense of duty; the consequences were high casualties but also a new found respect.
  •  Extension: Ngata encouraged men to go as it was “the price of citizenship”. Do you agree with Ngata’s reasons? Why/ why not? Did Māori pay too high a price? How?

Achievement objective 6.2: Understand how people’s perspectives on past events that are of significance to New Zealanders differ.

Indicators: Lesson ideas – students could: Resource Links:
1. Identifies and describes perspectives on a past event
  • Identify the differing perspectives on the Māori Battalion participating in World War Two, for example Sir Apirana Ngata, Princess Te Puea and Tau Henare
  •  Describe the perspectives of those who took part, both Māori and New Zealand European soldiers
2. Debates an event from different perspectives
  • Debate the Māori war effort and their sacrifice. Why were the casualties so much higher than other units?
  •  Offer a viewpoint on whether Māori really were “winners” as a result of their participation in World War Two.
3. Makes links or contrasts between the experiences of people in the past and their own experiences
  • Compare and contrast students’ own experiences of life today with those of Māori and non-Māori soldiers in the theatre of war. Students could construct a T-chart, construct a “day-in-the-life” for themselves and a Māori soldier, or study primary sources from the past in order to make comparisons with today.
4. Compares their experiences with those of people in the past
  • Compare students’ lives today with those of young men and women in the 1940s. For example, Māori society was mainly rural, poor, and maintained by traditional ties.
  • Rationalise why many Māori eagerly signed up. Would the same thing happen today? Why/ Why not?
  •  Discuss the role of women in 1940s

Assessment

Students could:

  • Conduct an inquiry of the Māori Battalion for their major historical investigation (Achievement Standard 91001) or select an historical figure as part of a study of Māori Leadership (for example Ngata or Te Puea).
  • Complete an historical perspectives task (Achievement Standard 91002) on differing views regarding Haane Manahi’s demotion to a DCM rather than the Victoria Cross. Perspectives could include: a General in the British Army; a soldier in the Māori Battalion; the official in the British War Office who declined Manahi the VC; a contemporary figure such as politician Phil Goff (who became embroiled in the controversy in 2006) or historian Paul Moon.
  • Use the Māori Battalion to meet Achievement Standard 91006: “Describe how a significant historical event affected New Zealand society”. Students could use World War Two and/or the Māori Battalion as the event, and provide detail of its consequences, particularly for Māori communities before, during and after the war.

Sample assessment activity: Level 1 history

Attached is a sample assessment activity based on Achievement Standard 91006: “Describe how a significant historical event affected New Zealand society”. This is the most likely template the examiner will use for this standard from 2011 onwards:

Teaching and assessment links:


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