The Extraordinary, Hidden World of Papatūānuku Kōkiri Marae by Fergus Porteous is an informative non-fiction text that weaves personal stories with cultural knowledge to explore the kaupapa, history, and everyday life of an urban marae in Māngere, South Auckland. Through the experiences of kaiwhakahaere māra kai Lionel Hotene and the wider marae community, the text highlights how gardening, food, and whakapapa are central to wellbeing, learning, and connection. The narrative explains how the marae transformed from a small tin shed into a thriving māra kai, seed house, and community hub grounded in Māori values and sustainable practice. By introducing concepts such as hua parakore, seed saving, and food redistribution through projects like Kai Ika, the text shows how traditional knowledge and modern innovation work together to support people and the environment. Rich, hopeful, and community-focused, the text supports students to understand culture, sustainability, and leadership through lived experience and voice.

The text is ideal for integrated learning across literacy, science, health, and social sciences, supporting inquiry into food systems, cultural identity, environmental responsibility, and community action in contemporary 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 5

English (NZC Levels 3–4): reading for meaning and critical thinking, analysing author perspective and voice, understanding explanatory and informational texts, synthesising ideas from multiple sections, exploring vocabulary related to culture and sustainability

Science – Living World: living things and their environments, sustainable practices, food chains and ecosystems, human impact on the environment, composting and soil health

Health and Physical Education: wellbeing, nutrition, community participation, relationships, identity, resilience

Social Sciences – Aotearoa New Zealand Histories: Māori knowledge and practice, urban marae, continuity and change, community leadership, identity and belonging, collective responsibility

Text type: Non-fiction, informational text, cultural narrative, biographical profiles, explanatory report

Key words include: Aotearoa New Zealand histories, compost, community, culture, family, food systems, food scraps, gardening, health, hua parakore, kūmara, kai, Kai Ika project, māra kai, Māngere, marae, Papatūānuku, Ranginui, Rongomātāne, whakapapa, tikanga, te reo Māori, sustainability, seed saving, urban marae, urbanisation, vegetables, relationships, whānau, wellbeing, environmental stewardship, kaitiakitanga, recycling, organic growing, traditional knowledge, leadership, collective action