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Unit 2 Urban Migration Stories · 2025 Edition

Unit 2 Urban Migration Stories · 2025 Edition · Years 7–10

Ingoa / Name

Akomanga / Class

Rā / Date

Year LevelYears 7–10

TypeStudent handout — classroom resource

Ngā Whāinga Akoranga · Learning Intentions

Apply mathematical skills to investigate and solve real-world problems
Represent and interpret data using appropriate mathematical tools and language
Identify patterns and relationships in mathematical contexts including cultural settings
Communicate mathematical reasoning clearly with supporting evidence and working

Paearu Angitu · Success Criteria

I show clear mathematical working and can explain each step
I can accurately represent data in at least one graphical or tabular form
I can identify and explain a pattern or relationship in the data or problem
I can connect my mathematical findings to a real-world or cultural context

Unit 2 Urban Migration Stories · 2025 Edition

First-Person Accounts of the Great Māori Migration (1930s-1970s)

The Great Uprooting

Between the 1930s and 1970s, one of the most significant shifts in Māori society occurred: the great urban migration. Driven by a search for work and new opportunities, thousands of Māori moved from their rural homes to cities like Auckland and Wellington. This was not just a change of address; it was a profound cultural shift that reshaped Māori identity. These fictionalised first-person accounts are based on common experiences from this era, exploring the push and pull factors, the challenges, and the resilience of a generation caught between two worlds.

Hana, 1955 - "The Lure of the City"

"The letters from my brother in Wellington were like messages from another planet. He wrote about the wages at the factory, the picture theatres, the crowds of people. Back home, there was nothing. The farm work was hard, and there was never enough money. Our land was small, not enough to support all of us. The old people were sad to see us go. They said the city would swallow our culture. But what choice did we have? I packed one small bag with my best dress and a photo of my grandmother. I remember standing on the train platform, looking back at the green hills of home, feeling a mix of terror and excitement. The city was loud, grey, and lonely at first. But there were jobs, and for the first time, I had money in my pocket that was my own."

Push/Pull Factors: Lack of rural jobs (push), promise of wages and excitement (pull).

Rawiri, 1962 - "Finding Whānau in the City"

"The hardest part wasn't the work at the freezing works. It was the silence. Back home, you knew everyone. You were never alone. In the city, you could walk through a crowd of a thousand people and feel completely invisible. I missed the sound of my own language. I missed the marae. For a while, I was lost. Then, we started finding each other. A few of us from Ngāti Porou would meet on a Friday night. We'd pool our money, share a meal, sing the old songs. We started a kapa haka group. It wasn't the same as home, but it was something. We were building a new kind of marae, a city marae, without land or a meeting house, built out of people and shared memories."

Challenges & Responses: Loneliness and cultural isolation (challenge), creating new urban communities and cultural groups (response).

Mere, 1971 - "A Different World for the Children"

"My children were born in the city. They are city kids. They speak English better than they speak Māori. They know the bus routes, not the paths through the bush. I try to tell them the stories, to teach them the songs, but it's hard. Their friends are Pākehā, Samoan, Tongan. Their world is a mix of cultures. Sometimes I worry that they are losing their connection to the whenua, to their ancestors. But then I see them at the kapa haka practice, standing proud, and I think, maybe they are not losing something. Maybe they are creating something new: a new kind of Māori identity, one that can stand strong in the city, one that can navigate both worlds."

Identity & Change: Fear of cultural loss (challenge), emergence of a new, urban Māori identity (change).

Analysis and Empathy

Activity 1: Push and Pull

Based on the stories, what were the main "push" factors driving Māori away from their rural homes, and what were the main "pull" factors drawing them to the cities? Create a T-chart to list them.

Activity 2: Challenges and Responses

What were the biggest challenges faced by Māori who moved to the city? How did they respond to these challenges and build new communities?

Activity 3: A Letter Home

Imagine you are one of the characters in these stories. Write a short letter home to your whānau, describing your experiences in the city. Try to capture the mix of emotions – the excitement, the loneliness, the hope, and the challenges.

Hononga Marautanga · Curriculum Alignment

Curriculum alignment for this handout has not yet been verified against the live curriculum statements. A generated placeholder that stood here was removed on 2026-08-29 because it matched no real statement.

Tuhia ōu whakaaro · Write Your Thoughts

Reflect on your learning. What was the most important idea? What question do you still have?

Aronga Mātauranga Māori

Mathematics has always been part of mātauranga Māori — in the navigation of Te Moana-nui-a-Kiwa, in the architectural precision of wharenui, in the sophisticated storage and accounting systems of rua kūmara, and in the patterns of kōwhaiwhai and tukutuku that encode mathematical relationships in visual form. When Māori students engage with mathematics, they are not encountering something foreign: they are meeting a domain of knowledge that their tīpuna practised with extraordinary sophistication. Framing mathematical learning through whakapapa — connecting concepts to real Māori contexts — is not "cultural add-on" but recognition of where much mathematical knowledge lives in this land.

Ngā Rauemi Tautoko · Resources already provided

This handout is designed to be used alongside other resources in the same unit. This handout stands on its own; it is not part of a linked unit planner. All content is provided — no additional preparation is required to use this handout in your classroom.

📋 Teacher Planning Snapshot

Ngā Whāinga Ako — Learning Intentions

Students will engage with this resource to develop a decolonised understanding of Aotearoa's history — reading the past through the eyes of tangata whenua, examining primary sources critically, and understanding how colonisation continues to shape the present. This unit centres mana Māori as the starting point, not a footnote.

Ngā Paearu Angitū — Success Criteria

✅ Students can analyse a historical source for perspective, reliability, and significance — including identifying whose voices are centred or absent.
✅ Students can explain how a specific historical event — such as the NZ Wars, land confiscations, or the Dawn Raids — connects to present-day inequities and Māori-led responses.

Differentiation & Inclusion

Scaffold support: Provide annotated source analysis frames for entry-level access — guiding students through the OPCVL or SOLO process step by step. Offer extension tasks asking students to compare a colonial-era source with a contemporary Māori account of the same event, analysing how the historical narrative has been contested and reclaimed.

ELL / ESOL: Primary source language (particularly 19th-century English) presents specific challenges — pre-read sources with students and pre-teach archaic or specialist vocabulary. Allow students to express historical analysis in their home language first before translating to English. Bilingual glossaries support engagement without reducing intellectual demand. Some ELL students may bring first-hand experience of colonisation from other contexts — honour these as valid comparative perspectives.

Inclusion: Decolonised history can surface difficult emotions for Māori students encountering colonial violence and injustice in the curriculum for the first time. Create a trauma-informed classroom. Neurodiverse learners benefit from chunked tasks and clear analytical scaffolds. Ensure all students understand that the purpose of this unit is not guilt but understanding — and that understanding is the foundation of partnership and change.

Mātauranga Māori lens: Decolonising history means more than "adding Māori perspectives" — it means recognising that the dominant historical narrative itself is a colonial artefact. Whakapapa is an alternative historical framework: tracing connections, obligations, and continuity across time. The NZ Wars were not distant events — their consequences live in land ownership patterns, economic disparities, and community structures today. Tino rangatiratanga — the right of self-determination — was not surrendered at Waitangi and has been asserted continuously through protest, legislation, and resurgence. Teaching this history is an obligation of Te Tiriti partnership.

Prior knowledge: Students benefit from foundational knowledge of the Treaty of Waitangi and its context. No specialist prior knowledge required for entry-level source analysis tasks — scaffolds are provided.