Hukarere and Hine Tai by Apirana Taylor is a reflective fiction text that weaves family relationships with Māori storytelling to explore curiosity, belief, and kaitiakitanga. Through gentle, repetitive dialogue between Hukarere and her Nan, the story follows a child’s many questions about taniwha and what it means for something to be “real”. As Nan introduces the idea of taniwha as kaitiaki — guardians who care for people and places — the narrative shifts from playful questioning to deeper understanding. Set beside the sea, the story uses imagery, rhythm, and oral storytelling traditions to show how knowledge is passed between generations and how respect for the natural world is learned over time. Calm, lyrical, and deeply rooted in te ao Māori, the text supports students to understand belief, environment, and cultural values through lived experience and voice. 

The text is ideal for integrated learning across literacy and social sciences, supporting inquiry into Māori perspectives, guardianship of the environment, and intergenerational knowledge in Aotearoa New Zealand.

This pack contains wide range of response activities including:

• A guided reading plan exploring key literacy elements including inference and deduction, language use, making connection and text organisation, along with key questioning to promote emotional intelligence, metacognition and compassionate inquiry. 
• An independent learning contract complete with explainer videos for activity clarity
  
• A wide range of response activities to support developing and embedding key literacy skills including sentence and word work, spelling, and cloze activities. 

Curriculum Phase: Phase 2
Year Level: Year 4

English (NZC Levels 2–3): reading for meaning and enjoyment, analysing dialogue and repetition, understanding narrative structure and character voice, making connections to personal experience, exploring imagery and theme

Social Sciences – Aotearoa New Zealand Histories: Māori perspectives, kaitiaki and kaitiakitanga, identity and belonging, continuity and change, relationships between people and place

Text type: Fiction, narrative story, cultural narrative

Key words include: taniwha, kaitiaki, kaitiakitanga, Hine Tai, Māori storytelling, oral tradition, nan and mokopuna, curiosity, questions, belief, guardianship, ocean, sea, environment, respect for nature, intergenerational knowledge, whakapapa, tikanga, te reo Māori, identity, belonging, care for places, storytelling, imagination, wisdom