The Kuranui Waka and the Story of Te Pakakohi by Airana Ngarewa is a powerful historical non-fiction text that weaves together archaeology, oral history, and lived memory to tell the story of an ancient waka uncovered on the banks of the Kuranui Stream in South Taranaki. The discovery becomes a gateway into the history of Te Pakakohi and neighbouring iwi, revealing the deep impacts of the New Zealand Wars, land confiscation, imprisonment, and resilience.

Through clear explanation, maps, historical images, waiata, and contemporary voices, the text explores whakapapa, taonga, and the responsibilities of caring for cultural heritage. It invites students to consider how history is remembered, whose stories are told, and how communities reclaim knowledge, identity, and pride. This text strongly supports inquiry into Aotearoa New Zealand histories and critical reflection on justice, peace, and remembrance.

This pack contains wide range of response activities including:

Two complete lesson slide decks. Each slide deck is fully structured and ready to teach, including:

• Clear WALT (Learning Intentions) and Success Criteria
• Engaging ‘Do Now’ warm-up activities
• Guided exploration of key historical content
• Explicit teaching of historical concepts (perspectives, cause and consequence, significance, continuity and change)
• Vocabulary development embedded throughout
• Opportunities for structured discussion and critical thinking
• Exit tickets to check for understanding

A Comprehensive Response Activity Pack - A wide range of purposeful activities that reinforce both historical inquiry skills and literacy development, including:

• A wide range of higher order thinking activities
• Perspective-taking and bias exploration activities
• Structured paragraph and extended writing scaffolds
• Vocabulary and language feature work
• Comprehension and inference tasks
• Cloze activities to consolidate key content
• Critical thinking and discussion prompts
• Independent or small-group response options

Key words include: Airana Ngarewa, ancestors, ANZ histories, archaeology, Aotearoa New Zealand histories, belonging, colonisation, community, community memory, confiscation, conservation, conservator, culture, cultural heritage, hapū history, historical inquiry, historical non-fiction, identity, imprisonment, iwi history, justice, Kuranui, Kuranui Stream, land confiscation, museum studies, New Zealand Wars, Ngā Rauru, Ngāruahine, Ngāti Ruanui, Ngāwaka Taurua, non-fiction text, oral history, Pātea, Pātea River, peace, reconciliation, remembrance, resilience, resistance, South Taranaki, Taranaki, Taranaki War, taonga, Te Pakakohi, The Kuranui Waka and the Story of Te Pakakohi, Tītokowaru, tūpuna, waka, waiata, whakapapa, whenua.