Kōkiri Learn

Week 3 of 5

Moving within Aotearoa, and hearing people's accounts

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Session 1 · TRACE: Relationships

From the country to the city

  1. 10 minBefore the Second World War, most Māori lived in rural areas in their own tribal districts. Look at the numbers: 26% urban in 1945, 62% in 1966, nearly 80% by 1986.
  2. 20 minWhy move? Read the Te Ara account and Sir Paul Reeves' story of his parents' move in 1921. Sort the push and pull factors: work, money, adventure, too little land, government relocation after the 1961 Hunn Report.
  3. 15 minConsequences for people and places: rural villages that emptied, the first generation who grew up in the city, and new urban marae and kapa haka groups that kept whānau connected.
  4. 5 minKārearea asks one question: 'Was this a drift or a decision, and who gets to say?'

Session 2 · TRACE: Accounts

Planning an interview

  1. 10 minOral history: why do historians and geographers record people's own accounts? What can a story tell you that a census can't?
  2. 20 minInterview plan (Activity: 'Moving stories'): write open questions (Why did you move? What was the first week like? What helped? What was hard? What do you miss? What did you bring?). Practise in pairs.
  3. 15 minEthics: consent, recording, letting the person check their words, and the right not to answer. Write your consent form together.
  4. 5 minChoose who you will interview: whānau, a neighbour, a staff member or a community member invited to class.

Getting started

Give students a bank of open question starters: 'Tell me about…', 'What was it like when…', 'How did you feel…'.

Stretch

Compare two accounts of the same move from different people. Why might they remember it differently?

Checkpoint

You can explain why Māori moved to the cities after the war, and you have a tested interview plan and consent form.

Activities for this week

  • Moving stories: What can people's own accounts tell us that data can't?

Useful this week

  • The end of a 'white New Zealand' policy ↗ Pacific migration in the 1950s–70s and the 1974 policy change.
  • Urban Māori ↗ Why Māori moved to the towns and cities after the war, with numbers and personal stories.
  • Samoans ↗ The story of Samoan migration and community life in New Zealand.
  • The Dawn Raids ↗ Primary sources and accounts of the 1970s raids on Pacific families, and the 2021 apology.
  • Chinese ↗ From the Otago goldfields to the poll tax and the 2002 apology.
  • Indians ↗ Gujarati, Punjabi and Fijian Indian migration, prejudice and community.
  • Refugees ↗ Who has come to New Zealand seeking safety, and the challenges they faced.