Objective

Understand what the word community means and the different types of communities that exist. Understand how communities can change after interacting with different communities.

H - Introduction to Community

Communities are groups of people who share something in common. This could be where they live, their interests, their culture, or activities they enjoy. Living in the same neighborhood or town, for example, forms a geographic community. People also form communities based on shared interests.

Write down a list of all the communities that you belong to.

SH - Different Types of Communities

Below is a list of the different types of communities people may belong to. In your books, write down the type of community with the correct definition.

Types of Communities:

Geographical Communities
Virtual Communities
Cultural Communities
Interest-Based Communities
Professional Communities

Definitions:

These groups come together because of shared heritage, language, traditions, or religion.
These are formed around common hobbies or passions, such as sports teams, book clubs, or online gaming groups.
Members of these communities share the same profession or industry. They often come together to share knowledge, solve industry-specific problems, and network.
These communities are online. People might never meet face-to-face but connect through social media, forums, or gaming platforms.
These are formed based on where people live—like cities, villages, or neighborhoods.

Can you add any more communities that you belong to your list?

H - Source Analysis Painting of Māori Community 1828

Explain why sources like this may be useful for historians as evidence about these areas:

What life was like for pre-European communities.
How life was different for Māori before the arrival of Europeans.

Figure 1: Painting of Māori Community 1828

Daily Life in Traditional Māori Communities

Traditionally, the day began early, with prayers and singing to worship the rising sun. The daily life of the community was based around getting food, so most people spent their days in activities such as:

Planting and tending crops in communal gardens
Fishing or gathering seafood
Hunting moa, other birds or seals

Children and adults worked alongside each other, and chiefs worked together with their people. The first meal of the day was around mid-morning. As the sun began to set, workers returned to the village and food was prepared and eaten together. The rest of the evening was spent in games and conversation. Sometimes there were prayers to the setting sun. Once it was dark, people generally went to sleep.

Changes in Daily Life After European Arrival

After European explorers and traders began visiting New Zealand, traditional life in Māori villages changed. Europeans traded new foods such as potatoes and pigs, and new technology such as iron tools and muskets (guns). This meant less time was needed to grow or gather food for the community. The muskets meant that more people died in intertribal wars.

Some Māori became involved in trading food, flax or timber with Europeans, which sometimes took them away from their villages. When missionaries arrived, from 1814, many children attended mission schools and learned European concepts of time. Reading became a popular pastime in villages.

After wars between government forces and some tribes in the mid-to-late 1800s, some tribes came in closer contact with a European way of life. Other tribes, particularly those who had land confiscated by the government after the wars, returned to more traditional ways of life.

Retrieval Questions

What were the main activities involved in the daily life of a traditional Māori community?
What was the typical daily schedule in a traditional Māori community?
Describe the impact of European muskets on Māori communities.
Explain the effects of missionary schools on Māori culture. What long-term impacts might these have had on Māori society?
How did Māori children's education and pastimes change after the arrival of missionaries?

H - Source Analysis: Painting of French Sailors with Māori, Kororāreka, 1835

Task: Explain why this image may be useful for a historian studying the history of early European settlers to Aotearoa.

Painting of French Sailors with Māori, Kororāreka, 1835

Figure 2: Painting of French Sailors with Māori, Kororāreka, 1835

Pākehā men pursuing whales off the coast of Aotearoa New Zealand in the early 19th century sometimes settled ashore and married into Māori tribes. Whalers were followed by missionaries keen to convert Māori to Christianity. Then organised settlement from Britain began, and relations between Māori and Pākehā soon deteriorated.

Ōtākaro Kahui Ako

Lesson - Intro to Community

Ōtākaro Ako

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