Description
Te Aro Pā by Fergus Porteous is an informative non-fiction text that weaves archaeology, oral history, and historical narrative to explore the significance of Te Aro pā in Te Whanganui-a-Tara (Wellington). Through the discovery of ancient whare ponga during a modern building project, the text reveals how Māori history sits beneath the contemporary city. Drawing on the knowledge of mana whenua representative Richard Te One (Te Ātiawa), the text explains how the site was identified, protected, and returned to mana whenua, while also exploring daily life at the pā, the impacts of colonisation, environmental change, and the enduring presence of mana whenua in the area. Rich and place-based, the text supports students to understand continuity, change, and identity through lived history and voice.
The text is ideal for integrated learning across literacy and social sciences, supporting inquiry into local history, archaeology, colonisation, and the ongoing presence of mana whenua in Aotearoa New Zealand.
This pack contains a range of response activities complete with activity explainer videos for exploring thinking skills and developing emotional understandings and compassionate inquiry including:
- Blooms Higher Order Thinking activities
- Book Club guide for deepening text discussion
- A range of activities to explore emotional understanding, compassionate inquiry, empathy development, vocabulary and developing skills for self and co-regulation.
Curriculum Phase: Phase 3
Year Level: Year 6
English (NZC Levels 3–4):
reading for meaning and critical thinking, identifying key ideas across sections, analysing author voice and use of oral history, synthesising historical information, interpreting maps, diagrams, and visual sources
Social Sciences – Aotearoa New Zealand Histories:
local histories, mana whenua, colonisation and its impacts, continuity and change, archaeology, land use, identity and belonging
Text type:
Non-fiction, historical report, informational text, place-based history
Key words include:
Te Aro pā, Te Whanganui-a-Tara, Wellington, mana whenua, Te Ātiawa, whare ponga, archaeology, artefacts, tūpuna, tīpuna, colonisation, settlers, Pākehā, māra kai, streams, urban development, land loss, continuity and change, taonga, identity, local history, always here
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