Te Mauri i Taku Hapori Mauri in my community

Ahakoa he iti, he pounamu.
Although it is small, it is a treasure.

If you think you are too small to make a difference, try sleeping with a mosquito.

Big things have small beginnings

Materials needed: rope, music.

• Tie a piece of rope in a loop large enough for ākonga to fit within it and lay it on the ground. Invite everyone to sit inside the circle.
• Once they have accomplished this, congratulate them on working together so they all fit and now challenge them to see if they can do even better. To challenge them further, make the rope smaller.
• Now, invite ākonga to once again sit within the circle. Once they have accomplished this, congratulate them again and see if they are up for another challenge. Continue to make the rope smaller and smaller until you see they are beginning to run out of solutions as to how they can all fit within the circle.
• Eventually, the circle will be much too small to fit every student.
• The goal is for students to cooperate with each other and work close together to come up with creative solutions.
• As you watch your students, encourage them by asking questions to think about the various ways they can go about trying to fit everyone in. You will be surprised with some of the solutions they come up with such as putting only hands in, feet in, fingers in, etc.
• At the end, discuss what you observed and invite feedback.

View real life examples of people contributing to the mauri of different groups in their community:

• Watch Akbar Khan, an inspirational young man’s ideas on how he contributed to the global community in: Playing with Good Garbageopen_in_new (From Bags to Riches).
• Watch this video as an example of kaitaikitanga: Bill Kerrison – Saving NZ’s longfin eelopen_in_new. If watched in previous lesson, remind students how Bill Kerrison is making a positive difference to the mauri of his local ecosystem.
• Read the newspaper article: Firewood delivered to families in needopen_in_new.

Kaitiakitanga – Guardianship and protection. It is a way of caring for the environment, based on the Māori world view. A kaitiaki is a guardian such as an atua (see below) or a person or group that cares for an area such as a lake or forest.
Manaakitanga – Hospitality, generosity, support, respect and care for others. Nurturing people so that they feel valued and looked after. Encouraging a feeling of belonging in this community/place/ planet.
Mauri – The essential vital quality and wellbeing of an individual, a group, a place, or an ecosystem. Understanding the mauri or wellbeing of a place helps us to see why kaitiakitanga is important. When mauri is weakened by neglect, overuse or pollution, many other life systems are affected, eg. cars and roads and their effect on wildlife and nature. By practising kaitiakitanga we can help to protect and nurture the mauri of a community and place.
Raraunga (Citizenship) – The status of being a citizen. If you have citizenship in a country, you have the right to live there, work, vote, and pay taxes. A person exercising citizenship can be defined as someone who contributes to make the group, community, country, our world a better place to be.