Summer Learning Journey 2019-2020 • Week 1 • Day 1 - Activity 2

Hi everyone! Welcome to another post, this is another activity for the Summer Learning Journey, but this time we are learning about Aotearoa and who discovered it. I hope you enjoy reading my post.

Activity 2: Discovering Aotearoa [4 points]

Many people believe that Kupe was the first explorer to discover Aotearoa, New Zealand in about 1300. He navigated his way by waka to Aotearoa from Hawaiki using traditional Polynesian navigation techniques - just like Nainoa Thompson (from Activity 1) did much later on. Legend says that he followed a great octopus all the way to Aotearoa/New Zealand and finally destroyed it in Cook Strait (the water between the North and South Islands).

Many years later, a Dutch explorer from The Netherlands, Abel Tasman, was exploring the Pacific Ocean when he came across New Zealand. He thought that he was the first person to ‘discover’ the country (despite the fact that Māori already lived in New Zealand!) and made the claim in 1642 that he had ‘discovered’ a new land. His exploration of New Zealand inspired many other European explorers to follow his lead and travel to Oceania.

Kupe and Abel Tasman were two different men from two very different backgrounds (cultures) who shared a common interest - exploration.

For this activity, we had to think about our personal experiences and our cultural background. We had to explain where our family comes from. For this, I have created a poster about my cultural background. For this, I have created a poster about where my family and I came from.

I hope you have learned something, please have a great day!