Teaching resource: First Collisions

James Cook statue, Gisborne. Photo by Gisborne District Council

About this resource

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.

The resource also looks critically at Cook’s first landing on the East Coast, where the impact on Rongowhakaata iwi is felt to this day.

Finally, the arrival of Cook heralded the arrival of colonisation to these shores. This resource attempts to open up a conversation about this important and challenging history, hopefully leading to further conversation and debate within your class.

There are also suggestions to Look Local in order to uncover the stories in your area.

The accompanying pictures mostly showcase images and objects from Te Papa’s collections. These images illustrate small, accessible pieces of information which, together with discussion questions, are designed to promote conversation among your students.

How to use this resource

This resource is designed to work with a group of students reading the text together, looking at the images, and then discussing the question prompts. It will also work well with students in pairs, or prompt whole class conversation and debate.

You might decide to have different groups working on different themes and then rotating, possibly presenting their findings. Or, you might decide to have the whole class working on the same theme at the same time.

Each of these ‘table talkers’ is made of two separate but linked pieces of content. They are designed to be printed out, folded, and stood in the centre of a group of students.

Feel free to adapt this resource according to your topic and the needs of your class – and make sure that you print it out in colour!