Just like the Aotearoa Histories curriculum itself, the catalyst for Te Ata o Tū was the petition from several Otorohanga High School students to include the New Zealand Wars as a compulsory topic in schools. Curators from Te Papa Tongarewa decided that it was time to create a collection of all the rich artefacts they held that were related to the New Zealand Wars, and a copy of the book was given to every high school and kura in Aotearoa. Frank Wilson tells us about the book and how it could be used in the classroom. Read an interview with three of its writers here, and check out sample pages here.
Te Ata o Tū |The Shadow of Tūmatauenga: The New Zealand Wars Collections of Te Papa, by Matiu Baker, Katie Cooper, Michael Fitzgerald & Rebecca Rice (Te Papa Press)
Te Ata o Tū is not an uncritical exhibition of New Zealand War artefacts, nor is it trying to give a comprehensive history of the New Zealand Wars. Instead, Matiu Baker, Katie Cooper, Michael Fitzgerald and Rebecca Rice have used the collections at Te Papa to interrogate both the role of our national museum, and the way we view the past and the present through ‘histories of remembering and forgetting’.
[Te Ata o Tū] can add to the kete of a kaiako who is wanting to explore the New Zealand Wars with their students.
Te Ata o Tū is divided into five parts: Contested authority, A garrison colony, A new kind of war, Legacies of conflict and Contemporary responses. Each section has a range of taonga or artefacts with a short written piece about the artefact and its connection to the theme or timeframe. The authors of these are identified, which is excellent as students can explore the author’s positionality and perspectives as part of their research. Finally, each part is concluded with essays from Māori historians related to the theme of that section.
The caption to the drawing reads: This handsome flag was captured by the Forest Rangers under Major Jackson on Dec 13th 1863 in an engagement about 5 miles north of Paparata. It is very neatly made of crimson silk, white calico & black luster. The maker was a young half-caste Jane Russell now Mrs Jane Foley of Rotorua.
It is curious, given its catalyst, that the final version of the Aotearoa Histories curriculum does not mention the New Zealand Wars; the only references to wars in the final curriculum are international conflicts. And so, learning about the New Zealand Wars is still being left up to chance, and depends on teachers interpreting the Know progress outcomes at a deeper level and applying their pedagogical knowledge to meaningfully include stories about the New Zealand Wars in their programmes.
Teachers wanting to use this book in their teaching programme might consider the New Zealand Wars as a context to analyse people’s actions when thinking about how ‘People’s actions can have long-term positive and negative environmental impacts on places, the people who live in them, and the wider world’ (Years 4-6) or as a specific community challenge or government action when exploring ‘People respond to community challenges or government actions, sometimes acting individually and sometimes organising themselves collectively’ (Years 7 and 8) or a way that ‘The Crown asserted its power to establish a colonial state that in consequence diminished mana Māori’ (Years 9 and 10).
Teachers wanting to use this book in their teaching programme might consider the New Zealand Wars as a context to analyse people’s actions [in different year level inquiries]
This is not a book to read from cover to cover in class, rather it can add to the kete of a kaiako who is wanting to explore the New Zealand Wars with their students. For students up to year 10, they could look at one or two taonga from the book, explore them in detail online at Te Papa Collections searching using the collection number, and use the National Library tools for primary source analysis to help them make sense of what they observe. Then they may like to compare what they notice with the articles and stories that accompany each taonga, which add to, corroborate or in some cases, correct or contradict the information on the taonga.
It would also be a great book to have in the staffroom to pick up and browse through every day. There is so much richness in this book, it would create a great discussion prompt for lunchtime conversations as well as a guide for teaching and learning. Well done Te Papa!
Te Ata o Tū |The Shadow of Tūmatauenga
By Matiu Baker, Katie Cooper, Michael Fitzgerald & Rebecca Rice
Published by Te Papa Press
RRP: $70.00
Frank Wilson
Frank Wilson is a lecturer in initial teacher education at Victoria university, specialising in social studies and literacy. She also works for the Aotearoa Social Studies Educators Network supporting teachers to develop their history and social studies programmes.