Tō tātou whakapapa - Family History Inquiry

After a very successful sharing of family taonga/heirlooms and stories at the beginning of Term 3, our attentions turned to digging a little deeper on our own history. We became curious! What caused our ancestors to move around? What experiences did they have? A great chance to make some connections not only to our Aotearoa New Zealand History Inquiry but also some of the history of the world at large. 

We began exploring, by interviewing family, friends and grandparents and doing some background research. Then it was time to sort and create - either through historical fiction, biography or artistic expression. 

In the middle of all this, we were plunged back into a nationwide level four lockdown. Fortunately this played right into our hands. It meant we had a much more direct line to those interviewees. More time and space to check out artefacts, photos etc. The Inquiry rolled on, and for many of us it gained momentum. 

When we meet again, we are looking forward to celebrating this learning with each other. For now, here are a few examples of our mahi. Enjoy! 

Family story collage - what an amazing mix of countries/cultures!

Our culture

We have been learning about our culture, thinking about our families and where they come from. We are learning that our culture affects our beliefs, the food we eat, the clothes we wear, the traditions we follow, the music and dance we enjoy and the things we learn.

We have been asking questions about parts of our family history that we're not sure of. Some of our students went home and made family trees with their parents to be clear about their families. Keep up those great conversations!

Family Stories: Doing Research

We are planning to do some writing about our families as part of learning about who we are and where we come from, leading up to Matariki.  We will be asking everybody to do some research about an ancestor, perhaps a grandparent or somebody further back, who would be good to write about.  Somebody who has an interesting story; about how they arrived in New Zealand perhaps or somebody who lived and worked on a farm, the day the storm happened; it could be anything.

We are interested in the idea of doing some research, collecting facts about that person but then doing what writers do, telling their story through our own lens.  It will be interesting to see how stories might evolve.

The example I am going to use is a relative who won the Victoria Cross in the First World War.

His name was Stanley McDougall.