Māori knowledge of animals – local contexts
Aotearoa New Zealand is rich in animal life – from tiny pepeketua and giant wētāpunga to ngā manu a Tānemahuta and ngā ika a Tangaroa. Some of these animals are unique to particular locations, and many feature in local narratives.
Animals help us to connect to place and community. Within Aotearoa, animals also whakapapa to ngā atua and some act as kaitiaki – spiritual guardians – to particular hapū.
Māori knowledge of animals
This interactive groups animals through Māori frameworks based on whakapapa. Click on the labels for information about the animal groupings.
Select here to view the full transcript and copyright information.
In this activity, ākonga explore animals of interest to them or of local relevance to their rohe or local area. They are encouraged to look beyond the generic features of the animal to consider local mātauranga and/or other local connections.
By the end of this activity, students should be able to:
choose an animal of personal or local interest
use literacy skills to locate information about the animal species or group of animals, including local mātauranga
become a local expert about the animal
communicate their findings.
Download the Word file (see link below).
Related content
The following resources provide brief introductions of Māori knowledge about a selected sample of animal species indigenous to Aotearoa:
Ngā manu a Tānemahuta (featuring pīwakawaka, tūī, kererū, rūrū, kōtare, tītī and toroa)
Ngā ika a Tangaroa (featuring makō and tohorā)
Watch the recorded webinar Animals of Aotearoa with Professor Georgina Tuari Stewart and Dr Sally Birdsall.
Activity ideas
The following activities are literacy based and use the resources listed above:
Māori knowledge of animals – provocative questions also includes written or multi-modal responses to provocative questions/topics involving animals in Aotearoa.
Acknowledgement
This content has been developed in collaboration with Professor Georgina Tuari Stewart (Ngāti Kura, Ngāpuhi-nui-tonu, Pare Hauraki), Auckland University of Technology, and Dr Sally Birdsall, University of Auckland, with funding and support from the Ministry for Primary Industries – Manatū Ahu Matua and the Australian and New Zealand Council for the Care of Animals in Research and Teaching (ANZCCART).
Animals of Aotearoa and animal ethics
Animals of Aotearoa: Kaupapa Māori Summaries and Exploring the Three Rs of Animal Ethics with Māori Ideas were developed with funding from the Australian and New Zealand Council for the Care of Animals in Research and Teaching (ANZCCART) and the Ministry for Primary Industries. The silhouette design was created for this project and is the copyright of Professor Georgina Tuari Stewart and Dr Sally Birdsall.
