Colonial Impact

Whāinga ako: Lesson Goals

We are learning to explore the consequences of immigration to Aotearoa on both the land and tangata whenua.

Mahi - work

Humans have always had an impact on their environment. In the time of exploration, British people had an obsession with turning every land into a new version of England and didn't really think about the effect this might have.

Europeans were also obsessed with adding animals and artifacts to their museums. As a result many animals were wiped out when they tried to 'collect' them.

Here are some examples:

The Dodo

Initially a lot were killed by the introduction of rats. They were also eaten and collected by people when the numbers were dwindling.

The Giant Tortoise

Killed for food (an exotic feast) and to collect. It was the size of a sofa.

The Spotted Green Pigeon

British don't even know what happened to this bird or where it came from. But they have it in their museum. Thoughts are that it is from the pacific.

For this lesson we are going to focus on the impact that colonisers had on Māori, on the native animals and on the land when they arrived in Aotearoa. Here is a famous one story from Aotearoa.

Apologies for the pronunciation of Te Reo in this video.

What have we learned from this?

As a people we are learning from our mistakes and now work hard to protect endangered animals.

New Zealand has worked hard to save the kākāpō, a rare, flightless parrot. In the past, people hunted them, and predators like rats and cats nearly wiped them out. By the 1990s, only about 50 were left. To save them, scientists moved them to safe islands with no predators, helped them breed, and looked after their eggs. Now, there are over 250 kākāpō, showing that conservation can really help endangered animals.

Impact example: Waka Huia

This is a waka huia. Little is known about the artist responsible but we do know what it was for.

Wakahuia were used to store taonga (treasures) such as pendants or huia feathers.

To protect the contents, the waka huia were hung from the ceiling of the whare (house), which is why they were decorated all the way around.

The waka huia were considered tapu (sacred) because they held things that were precious and items that often touched the head (combs, feathers etc.). They were passed between generations and seen as precious gifts between hapu (subtribes).

Precious possessions for Māori, but also prized by Europeans when they arrived. These sort of items got bought or taken to add to overseas collections. The loss of taonga to museums overseas has had ongoing impact for Māori.

Think about the name waka huia. What does it literally mean?
What are huia feathers? Why were they important?
What happened to the huia?
What do you suppose the ongoing impact would be for Māori here?
Look back at the definition of catastrophe. How is this a catastrophe?

Below are only two major impacts colonialism had on the country as it was. These catastrophes we can reflect on as just some of the cost of colonisation.