Māori Story Curriculum 

 

Just as teachers in Waldorf/Steiner schools are conscious of and follow a prescribed story curriculum which relates directly to the pedagogical development of the children in our care from the fairy tale through to biographies. So we should be just as conscious of and active in telling and reading stories from Aotearoa which relate to these developmental stages.  

 

We should also be conscious and active in constructing and providing for our students in our schools, a continuative narrative that takes the children on an unbroken journey from the Māori creation stories through to biographies of prominent Māori personalities who have shaped our country. 

 

In the High School, stories should be told; read and studied that describes times of conflict and political struggle within a Māori context. 

 

Though the prime provider of these stories will be the class teacher in the lower school and subject teacher in the high school, the value of involving local tangata whenua in this process should not be underestimated. 

 

Lower School Story Curriculum  

 

Class One  

Te Akomanga Tuatahi 

 

• Fairy tales  

• Simple nature stories 

 

Fairy tales are pre-birth history, human psychology, human development and a bridge between 2eternal truths about human and the spiritual world.  Many lessons are linked with these stories and the children are encouraged to live and learn imaginatively through the telling of these stories. 

 

  

Class One: Parallel Story Curriculum from Aotearoa 

 

Stories from Māori anthologies that have a Fairy-tale quality (depicting archetypical characters) 

 

Class Two  

Te Akomanga Tuarua 

 

• More complex fairy tales e.g. stories by Oscar Wilde 

• Fables 

• Stories of the Saints 

• Animal stories – Aesop’s Fables, Brer Rabbit 

 

 

 

Fables 

Allowing children to live into the stories, which identify animal characteristics with certain human behaviour traits and personalities which they can relate to, strengthens the children’s understanding of moral behaviour.  

 

The Saints 

Children are given moral pictures of the best of human nature. The stories of the saints and their love for, and their mystical relationship with, the animals of the earth are told in such a way that the children’s emotional life is warmed and moved to ‘do the good’. Celtic sagas. 

 

 Class Two: Parallel Story Curriculum from Aotearoa 

 

Simple Nature and Animal Stories from Māori anthologies. 

Māori stories based on nature should be chosen that support the healthy development of a moral life within the students. Being encouraged and enabled to live with these stories and the soul pictures they engender, allows the children to experience the higher side of their being and acts as a counter-balance to the harsher realities of everyday life. These stories should be imbued with deeds that show respect and reverence for the world of nature and of other people. 

 

Class Three 

Te Akomanga Tuatoru 

 

• Old Testament Stories 

The children begin the year with stories of the creation as found in Genesis. Through imaginative stories, they will be led to a sense of reverence for the creation of the heavens, the earth and the natural world of plants, animals and human kind. These stories place before the children living images of scientific facts that would otherwise be dryly ‘Factual’ and devoid of artistic inspiration. By dwelling deeply within the creativity of the Creation, the story of the expulsion from Paradise will reflect a real state of soul to the children and therapeutically support them through what is known as the nine year old crisis incarnation process.  

 

 

Class Three Parallel Story Curriculum from Aotearoa 

 

• Māori Creation Stories 

Accompanying the stories from the Old Testament are the myths and legends of Māori that tell of the creation of the heavens and the world. The great love between Ranginui and Papatūānuku and the deeds of their many children, will all enhance the students’ experience of the mystery of the world’s being. The fables that explain animal and bird characteristics and plant forms could be interwoven or told separately from the stories from Genesis. The deeds of the god Tāne Mahuta and his relationship with the birds of the forest may be told and developed in many ways. The children should have opportunities to reflect on these stories through various mediums: orally, artistically and practically. 

 

  

Class Four 

Te Akomanga Tuawhā 

 

• Norse Myths 

The stories of the Northern Gods are usually told in full, from the creation through to Ragnarok and the beginnings of the new age. These stories are relevant for their portrayal of humanities, loss of connection with the gods, when the veil was drawn more firmly between the spiritual world and the earthly world.  

 

The stories are full of humour, drama and tragedy. The children at this age are able to recognise right from wrong and being conscious in one’s choice to act one way or the other.  The journey of Loki’s becomes a potential healing force in this process as the experience through these stories the devastation brought about by a single act of ill will of Loki.  

 

Class Four: Parallel Story Curriculum from Aotearoa 

 

• Stories from the children’s lives and from Elders 

For children to get a sense of who they are in time and place it is important for them to hear stories of their own growing up and stories from their parents, grandparents and from their Tipuna. There is no better way for the children to hear these stories than from elders associated with the children in the class or local Kaumātua. 

 

•  Māui-Tikitiki-a-Taranga Stories. 

The inner activity of the recognising right from wrong and being conscious in one’s choice to act one way or the other becomes a part of the child’s moral make-up in Class 4.  

The reflection given to them through the many adventures and life’s journey of the demigod Māui, from his mysterious infanthood to his attempt of entering back into the spiritual world and subsequent death are valued by the children at this age for their reflective qualities. They are also stories that are full of great humour drama that the children can easily relate to at this age. 

 

• Local 3Pūrākau that describe the creation of local geographical features. Stories that describe local history i.e. first Māori in the area and subsequent integration with other iwi, first local contact with European, First integration with European settlers, trade, Musket Wars etc. (Land Wars should probably be studied later)  

These stories should be told not through facts and figures but through imaginative pictures that lead the students to discover themselves in time and place, and to an appreciation of the wonder of their world and how they arrived in it: 

 

 

• Kupe  

For the students to get a sense of how they arrived in their local area it may help to give a story picture of how the first people arrived in the Aotearoa and this might start with the story of Kupe. 

 

 

 

Class Five 

Te Akomanga Tuarima 

 

• Selected stories from Ancient Civilisations: India, Sumeria, Babylon, Mesopotamia, Egypt and Greece. 

Through these stories the students journey from myth and legend to recorded history. Ancient India is studied through The Ramayana or Bagavad-Gita. The stories of Gilgamesh and Eabani and Zarathustra may be told in brief before moving onto stories from Ancient Greece such as the story of Odysseus.  

 

Class Five: Parallel Story Curriculum from Aotearoa 

  

 

• Stories that describe the creation and formation of national geographical features. 

Following on from the Local Geography and Local History Main Lessons of Class Four the students will now study the geographical, features of the whole country. 

 

Learning initially in an imaginative artistic way through myths, legends and stories of historical episodes that the configuration of the land, mountains, rivers and lakes were formed 

 

 

 

Class Six 

Te Akomanga Tuaono 

 

• Stories from Rome  

The emphasis of these selected stories should allow the students to experience what it meant to be a citizen of Rome, at the height of its greatness. To be able to experience themselves as Romans: true, honest, fair and brave; to experience themselves as honourable part of a community, holding the good of the state above all else. 

 

• Tales of Chivalry from Middle Ages 

Woven throughout their study of The Middle Ages are told stories of Chivalry and Chivalric love that epitomise the time and point the students towards the higher impulse of the age. It is of utmost importance to place before the children stories permeated with longing and feelings that engender this impulse towards chivalric idealism.  

 

 

 

Class Six: Parallel Story Curriculum from Aotearoa 

 

 

• Re-touching on creation stories that relate to NZ geology. 

At this age we direct the children’s gaze back to the land we live upon. We look at the ground beneath our feet and the mineral kingdom that it is made of. We do not want to fill the children’s heads with geological facts, but rather awaken a consciousness of the life on earth. This is where we can utilise stories from the tangata whenua, which depict such things as the place pounamu has in Māori society, or the stories around the origins of geological features or events. i.e. the story of Rūaumoko. 

 

• Stories from the Pacific and Australia that give students a sense of being part of our Pacific community. 

For the students to experience themselves as citizens of a Pacific Nation they need to hear the stories of the people of the Pacific and Australia. (Ideally being told directly by the tangata whenua of these places)  

 

 

Class Seven 

Te Akomanga Tuawhitu 

 

• Biographies of Great Deeds 

The task of these stories is to give the students a picture of role models outside of the student’s immediate experience of people who went beyond their immediate horizons and personal thresholds to achieve great things i.e. The great explorers.  

 

 

Class Seven: Parallel Story Curriculum from Aotearoa 

 

 

• Biographies of Māori who influenced the development of our country especially around themes of navigation, exploration, voyaging and astronomy. 

The task of the Class Seven teacher is to help the students look beyond the immediate horizon and begin a voyage of discovery. Our task is to present threshold pictures of bravery, sacrifice, and daring to go beyond the known. These stories allow students to reflect upon the consequences of these deeds. 

 

To support the children in this process, stories of contemporary Māori Navigators can be explored. Biographies of positive Māori role models who have moved beyond their comfort zones, to achieve great things can also be studied or told. 

 

Class Eight 

Te Akomanga Tuawaru 

 

• Biographies of Māori personalities who have shaped our world or contemporary Māori personalities who are shaping our world at the present time.   

• This could also be a year of studying early (pre-pākehā) New Zealand. 

•  The stories corresponding with this history if not already told in classes 4 and 5. 

• The Land Wars particularly if pertaining to local area. 

 

 

The fourteenth year is a milestone year in the inner life of a young person. There is an increasing realisation and assertion – of the individual sense of self, of the uniqueness of one’s own identity. After the breadth of exploration of the world including the navigation of early Māori explorers to Aotearoa, covered in class 7, the class 8 year is one of turning towards inwardness, even, at times, self-absorption. 

 

However, in this year, there is a strong connection to, and care for, the outside world, as well as the need to be able to articulate emotions and feel safe and interested in his or her place in the world. 

 

The students are searching for meaningful role models or people who are worth emulating. They are striving to develop personal courage and a connectedness to the world.  Biographies of Māori role models who encourage this. 

 

 

 

 

Class Nine 

Te Akomanga Tuaiwa 

 

Possible Themes: 

• Stories about Māori who have overcome great obstacles or struggles. 

 

With adolescence, the soul forces of the young person become extremely active. It is a bewildering world when the adolescent is often at the mercy of a strong, uncontrolled feelings and emotions, which swing, like a pendulum from one extreme to the other. 

One needs to channel this energy into a healthy relationship with the outer world and one way of doing this is through bringing to the students stories from NZ history that have two opposing sides, stories that can be explored and debated without prejudice to one side or the other. 

There is little scope for the finer nuances of feeling; everything is black and white, wonderful or abysmal, joyful or full of sorrow. It is truly a year of polarities and opposites, and all stories in this year can play on this theme. 

 

Getting into land rights issues can be quite polarising for Class 9 students, as they will often follow their parents thinking, as they have not consolidated their own yet.  Exploring these issues would have to be done very carefully.  It might be better to tell stories about Māori who have overcome great obstacles or struggles instead. 

 

Class Ten 

Te Akomanga Tekau 

 

Although the emotions are still powerful in the students of this age, there is a marked development towards greater control and balance. They may still be argumentative but their greater reasoning power can more readily take hold and mater the emotions.  

 

There is now a striving towards the balance between polarities and this includes their ability to look at opposing sides of the same historical event that has helped shape their world. 

 

With these new faculties in mind, it is a good time to relook at stories of major conflict in the New Zealand history as the students have now developed the ability to look at an event from its various perspectives in a balanced way. 

 

Stories which may have been told in a pictorial way in Class 4 or 5 about the Land Wars can now be explored in depth. And while the story around the actual signing of the Treaty of Waitangi may have been touched on in Class 4 or 5, it can be now explored in depth. Teachers can look at the story content of main lessons in two different ways. They could look at the story content from Civil Rights perspective and tell stories from NZ history that relate to this theme. 

 

The story of Parihaka could be explored from the perspective of the question- where did the idea and the origins of peaceful protest in the Taranaki struggles come from. (possible connections to Ghandi) 

 

Story Content 

• Treaty of Waitangi 

• Land Wars 

• Te Kooti 

 

 

Class Eleven 

Te Akomanga tekau-mā-tahi 

Re-telling of local stories with a focus on making a connection to the local community. 

 

The Class 11 student is able to form deep and lasting relationships and friendships at this age with others and the world around them. They are also able to form a balanced opinion around history.  With this in mind, it is a good time to re-connect the students to local tangata whenua. This re-connection may take the form of a special dedicated Main lesson around Te Ao Māori but it could take a number of other forms. 

 

In Class 11 many students are specialising in different subject areas so may not get the opportunity to read or hear the same stories as all of the other students in their year group. 

 

Some of the aims for Class 11 are to be aware of themselves as a member of a world community, to have well-developed moral, ethical and personal standards and to foster a sense of ones potential to make a difference. 

 

These aims again lend themselves to studying the Treaty of Waitangi and those identities involved in different political struggles in our history. Class 11 could also be a time for stories about political struggles from the Māori renaissance.  As students can see the pros and cons more clearly than in Class 9.  Story content could also include more contemporary stories such as Bastion Point, Raglan Golf Course and Moutua Gardens. 

 

• Māori Battalion 

• Bastion Point 

• Raglan Golf Course  

• Moutua Gardens 

• Waimana Valley Conflict 

 

 

Class Twelve 

Te Akomanga Tekau-mā-rua 

 

 The stories that help the students understand the spiritual concepts behind their education. This year is a culmination of an education which seeks to produce individuals who will work with a sound understanding of both themselves and the world and the lessons in this year form the grand synthesis of the whole of their education. 

 

It is important that our graduates at the end of Class Twelve go out into the world knowing and being able to articulate the philosophy behind the education they have experienced. Because of this it is important that they can relate the spiritual concepts behind their education to the cosmology behind the spiritual concepts of the tangata whenua.  This needs to be interspersed with contemporary stories of things happening now, issues of our time, child poverty, housing shortages, but also inspirational stories from the world of sports, art, New Zealand literature, iwi success stories from Treaty settlements. 

 

• Māori Cosmology  

• Contemporary social issues/success stories