Matariki and Environment Aotearoa 2022
Environment Aotearoa 2022 is a report from New Zealand’s Ministry for the Environment and Stats NZ on the health of te taitao - the environment.
The report uses Te Kāhui o Matariki as the guiding framework. Each whetū in the Matariki cluster is associated with an aspect of wellbeing and the environment.
This collection houses the resources the Hub has created to support this innovative report. The yellow notes help to provide context and pedagogical insights. Although the Hub has hundreds of resources that support environmental knowledge and monitoring, we've only used a few key resources for each whetū/environmental domain. Use the links and related content within each Environment Aotearoa 2022 article for additional, wrap-around resources.
Access the full report here:
https://environment.govt.nz/publications/environment-aotearoa-2022/
It has:
- examples of mātauranga Māori for each domain
- graphs and other figures for interpretation
- environmental indicators
- references
PLD webinar
Te Kāhui o Matariki and the environment is a short webinar that unpacks some of the concepts that underpin these resources. The webinar touches on:
- whetū and their domains
- mātauranga Māori and science
- mauri, wellbeing and sustainability
- cross-curricular learning activities
- local curriculum.
Te Kāhui o Matariki and the domains they represent in Environment Aotearoa 2022.
Matariki – The stars of the year (Ngā whetū o te tau)
Pōhutukawa – Loss, extinction, gratefulness to the environment (te taiao)
Tupuānuku – Our soils and food grown in the earth
Tupuārangi – Everything that grows above the earth
Waitī – Freshwater
Waitā – Ocean and marine conditions
Waipunarangi – Rain and frosts
Ururangi – Atmospheric conditions, winds, and the sky
Hiwa-i-te-rangi – Future aspirations and actions to sustain the environment (te taiao)
Each of the whetū have a bespoke image with a whakataukī.
Explore the artwork and the whakataukī for cross curricular learning. Encourage students to consider how they might illustrate the whetū and/or create whakataukī or poetry for an environmental domain of local interest.
The activity Exploring the images and whakataukī connecting to Te Kāhui o Matariki has suggestions and probing questions to make the most of these amazing images.
Each whetū also has an infographic.
The articles also contain infographics – visual representations of information using graphic images and text.
The article Understanding infographics explains their purpose and how they are constructed.
The activity Te Kāhui o Matariki – interpreting infographics has probing questions to help students understand the ways in which these infographics present information.
The activity Using infographics has instructions on how to create a simple infographic.
The Matariki star cluster
An explanation of the star cluster, Matariki and te maramataka Māori.
Matariki – the domain of people and wellbeing.
Environment Aotearoa 2022 – introduction
The introductory article explains the Matariki framework. It explains how Matariki represents a sign of wellbeing. It also curates the individual articles of the Matariki star cluster whetū and their environmental domains.
Te Kāhui o Matariki
Use this infographic to explore the stars and their connections to environmental domains.
Remember you can download a PDF version too.
Naming the whetū in Te Kāhui o Matariki
This activity uses online and/or paper-based resources to identify and label the nine whetū in Matariki and learn about their associations with wellbeing and the environment.
Pōhutukawa – reflecting on the pressures we’ve put on te taiao and how this information can guide us to take action.
Pōhutukawa – pressures on the environment
Pōhutukawa represents the species and ecosystems that we have lost and are at risk of losing. She also represents the appreciation and duty of care we have for te taiao (the environment).
Pōhutukawa – reflecting on our environmental actions
Use this infographic to discuss the pressures we are putting on the environment.
What do the words lost, cumulative and legacy mean?
Remember you can download a PDF version too.
Local curriculum, mātauranga and science
Exploring and acting on our duty of care is an ideal context for educators wishing to develop a local curriculum and/or embed mātauranga Māori into the science classroom. This recorded webinar offers practical support and resources.
Tupuānuku – soil quality and soil losses, and why healthy soils are important.
Tupuānuku – land and soil
Tupuānuku represents soil quality – the health of our soils and the different ways in which this affects our wellbeing. Te taiao (the environment) is interconnected – when we put pressure on our soils, this affects other environmental domains including freshwater and marine environments.
Tupuānuku
What plants do you think are represented in this image?
How does soil help things become lush, and abundant?
Tupuārangi and Tupuānuku – reflecting on the whenua and biodiversity
Tupuānuku and Tupuārangi are closely connected. Why do you think some of the plants and animals are red while others are blue and some are merely outlines?
Remember you can download a PDF version too.
Soil – introduction
This intro article links to the basics of soils, including easy-to-use activities.
Soil, farming and science – introduction
This intro article has links to land use impacts, management and ethics.
Tupuārangi – land-based ecosystems, in particular the ngahere (forests).
Tupuārangi
How does this image represent food and growth above the ground?
What species are represented in this image?
If you were drawing an image for your local area, which species would you include?
New Zealand native trees – an introduction
This is a curation of articles, activities and media. It also includes an interactive planning pathway that groups Hub resources into key science and teaching concepts: https://www.sciencelearn.org.nz/resources/2722-new-zealand-native-trees-an-introduction
Conserving native birds – introduction
This is a curation of our extensive resources on Aotearoa's beautiful and quirky native manu.
Conservation resources – planning pathways
This article contains helpful pedagogical information when teaching about conservations. It also includes an interactive planning pathway that groups resources into key science and teaching concepts: https://www.sciencelearn.org.nz/resources/2810-conservation-resources-planning-pathways
Waitī – freshwater environments
Waitī represents our essential connection to freshwater and how we are impacted by the degraded state of many of our freshwater environments. The mauri concept for Waitī links the health of freshwater to everything that is connected to it.
Waitī
How does this image reflect our connections to freshwater?
If you were drawing an image to reflect the fresh water system in your local area, which aspects and/or species would you include?
We can enhance our wellbeing by restoring threatened freshwater ecosystems. These resources provide help with the restoration process:
- Monitoring stream health
- Wetland restoration
- Te whakamahi i ngā rauemi o Tuihonoa Te Reo o Te Repo hei whakarite ara whakaako
- New Zealand’s freshwater fish – action conservation (resources in te reo Māori and English)
Taking action enables us to feel empowered and that we can make a positive difference to restoring and connecting to freshwater waterways and ecosystems.
Waitā – ocean and marine conditions
Waitā represents our dependence on the ocean for our livelihoods and wellbeing and how these are being affected by pollution, climate change and resource depletion.
Waitā
How does this image represent the moana?
What types of kaimoana do you recognise?
What does the word 'bounty' mean?
Waitā and our marine environment
Compare the image in the lower left hand side of the infographic with the image in the lower right hand side. How does the infographic portray species decline and loss?
Activities
These activities explore stresses that we put on the marine environment:
- Identifying marine stressors – interactive and activity
- Hubbub Estuary – activity
- Modelling marine stressors and tipping points – activity
Additional resources
We’ve curated marine resources (articles, activities and media) under the following topics:
- Estuaries – a context for learning – PLD article
- Biodiversity – estuaries and marine ecosystems – collection
- Sustainable Seas National Science Challenge – collection
- Mātauranga Māori and the moana – collection within our Seaweek resources curation
Waipunarangi – rains, frosts and climate
Waipuarangi represents what science tells us about the water cycle and climate.
The mauri of Waipuarangi - the balance of water falling as rain - affects the mauri of the land, the waterways and the sea. If there is too much or too little rain, the effect of this imbalance is felt across te taiao.
This article explores climate and its effects on many aspects of Aotearoa human and natural environments.
Waipunarangi
How does this image represent different types of rainfall?
Are there elements of the whakataukī that mirror the personification of Waipuarangi?
Additional resources
Climate change is a large and complex issue.
This article addresses climate change as a wicked problem and is a helpful place to begin when planning to teach about climate change.
Climate change resources – planning pathways provides pedagogical hints and includes an interactive planner that groups Hub resources into key science and teaching concepts.
Our atmosphere and climate – introduction curates climate change resources the Hub created to support Our atmosphere and climate 2020.
Ururangi – air, winds and the sky
Ururangi is associated with winds and weather patterns.
Our interactions with Ururangi can be seen in the quality of the air we breathe, the visibility of the night sky and the winds.
Observations of the sky inform specific tikanga Māori and are essential for readings of Matariki, which provides predictions for the year ahead.
Ururangi
Winds and the atmosphere are matangaro – an invisible phenomenon.
Can you visualise different types of winds in this image?
Which words describe the winds of Ururangi and how we experience them?
Ururangi and Waipunarangi – reflecting on our atmosphere and climate
This infographic looks at atmospheric conditions, their connections to our wellbeing and the impacts our actions have on these environmental domains.
Additional resources
The wind is integral to sailing. We use it for personal recreation, to win Olympic medals and the America's Cup. It plays a key role in traditional navigation using waka hourua and wayfinding.
We've curated our night sky resources in this article.
Information about air pollution in Aotearoa is curated here.
Hiwa-i-te-rangi
Hiwa-i-te-rangi challenges us to look ahead at the complex and interconnected challenges facing us and future generations as well as our ability to adapt to and mitigate future risk.
Additional resources
Hiwa-i-te-rangi invites us to engage in conversations about our aspirations for the future.
Concept cartoons are ideal for starting conversations and engaging students in meaningful discussions.
- The article Using concept cartoons provides background information and a variety of pedagogical methodologies and approaches.
- The activity Climate change – challenging conversations uses concept cartoons to explore climate change-related issues.
- The activity Using concept cartoons to explore students’ scientific thinking has blank templates for students and teachers to create their own concept cartoons.
Activities to support Te Kāhui o Matariki
The science capability ‘Interpret representations’ encourages students to think about how data is presented, what the representation tells us and how it gets the message across.
The following activities build on students' written and visual literacies as they explore the images and infographics from Environment Aotearoa 2022.