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Education visits Ngā toronga ako

Colonisation and Impact

Our programme considers the challenging history of colonisation in Aotearoa, explores present day legacies, and considers how we move forward as a nation.

  • Learning areas and strands Social Studies, History, English, Geography
  • Education type Education visit
  • Duration 60-90 minutes
  • Suitable for Year 5+
  • Next available This programme is currently under review
  • Cost $6.50 per student (teachers and parent helpers go free)

This programme is currently under review. Please email us for more information.

We’ll start by considering the first Pacific visitors to Aotearoa – who were they and how did they navigate their sailing vessels around the Pacific? Then we will look at the first encounter between Rongowhakaata iwi and James Cook, and discuss the lasting legacy of that first bloody exchange.

Te Papa has a wealth of objects and stories that can help us explore this crucial period in Aotearoa New Zealand history which will help foster reflection and debate with your students.

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  • Sailing vessel
    Voyage and discovery in the Pacific

    Voyage and discovery in the Pacific

    The history of the discovery of Aotearoa New Zealand goes back a millennium and contains the stories of many fine explorers, from Kupe to Cook. Here, explore Pacific exploration and European colonisation through our taonga, kōrero, and events.

  • Drawing of Captain Cook and a Māori meeting
    Many voices: Challenging colonial views of New Zealand and the Pacific

    Many voices: Challenging colonial views of New Zealand and the Pacific

    The complications of the word ‘traditional’? Why ‘reMāorification’ is a better word than ‘decolonisation’. How contemporary artists are retelling the inherited Pākehā-dominant histories of our nation. The collision of cultures. Read articles written by Te Papa staff.

  • Statue of Captain James Cook with red paint on his face and across his abdomen
    Teaching resource: First Collisions

    Teaching resource: First Collisions

    This resource is designed to place the arrival of Cook within a wider context of Pacific navigation as well as placing a larger focus on Tupaia, without whose superior navigation skills Cook would have struggled to arrive at the shores of Aotearoa at all.

    Learning resource