Session 1 · TRACE: Relationships
Ko au te awa, ko te awa ko au
- 10 minRead 'Ko au te awa, ko te awa ko au'. What does it mean to say 'I am the river and the river is me'?
- 20 minTwo ways of seeing: in pairs, fill a two-column chart: the river as a resource (water, power, gravel, drainage) and the river as an ancestor with mauri (life force), whakapapa and its own wellbeing. Where do the columns overlap?
- 15 minTe Pou Tupua: two people are 'the human face' of the river and speak for it. Role-play: a company wants to take more water from the upper river. What would Te Pou Tupua ask?
- 5 minExit card: one thing that changed in law in 2017, and one question you still have.
Session 2 · TRACE: Relationships
Why live on a floodplain?
- 15 minBuild it: in guttering or a long tray, make a sand river valley. Pour water slowly from the top end and watch the river carry sand and drop it on the flat land. That flat land is a floodplain.
- 15 minPlace model houses where people would like to live: flat, near water, easy to build. Now pour a 'flood'. What happens?
- 15 minWhanganui town: on a town map, find Anzac Parade, the river bends and the low land. Why did the town grow here in the 1840s? Who lived beside the awa long before that?
- 5 minRecord three reasons people settle on floodplains, and one risk.
Getting started
Use the resource-or-ancestor chart with pictures to sort.
Stretch
Compare Te Awa Tupua with Te Urewera (2014) and Taranaki Maunga (2025). What do they have in common?
Checkpoint
Each student can explain what Te Awa Tupua means in their own words and why floodplains attract people.
Activities for this week
- Sand river and floodplain model: How does a river build a floodplain, and what happens to houses on it?
- Resource or ancestor?: What changes when a river is treated as a living being?
Useful this week
- Te Awa Tupua (Whanganui River Claims Settlement) Act 2017 ↗ The law that recognises the river as a legal person, with the Tupua te Kawa values.
- Ngā Tāngata Tiaki o Whanganui ↗ The iwi river trust's own account of Te Awa Tupua.
- Whanganui Journey ↗ The river trip through the national park, with maps and river marae.