Lesson Title: It All Started with Moahunters: Sequent Occupance of New Zealand

Author: Rosalind Beckstead

Author Info: Kaysville Junior High, Kaysville, Utah

Grade: 9-12

Time Needed: 2-3 class periods

Overview: In this lesson, students learn about the sequent occupance and cultural landscape of New Zealand. Three cultural groups have left imprints on the natural landscape of New Zealand. First the Moahunters, next the Maori, and most recently Europeans. By studying the sequent occupance of New Zealand, students will be able to analyze the physical landscape and the cultural landscape of the country as well as understand that cultural values affect the imprint left by individual societies.

Definition of Key Terms:

Sequent Occupance - the idea that successive societies leave their cultural imprints on a place, each contributing to the cumulative cultural landscape.

Cultural Landscape - man-made changes to the physical landscape.

Physical Landscape - the natural environment including landforms, climate, and vegetation.

Natural Vegetation - vegetation present before man impacts the physical landscape.

Indigenous - original

Objectives: Student will be able to

1. Compare and contrast New Zealand's natural vegetation with its current agricultural land use.

2. Identify the sequent occupance of New Zealand.

3. Understand that the Maori and the Europeans value the natural world differently.

4. Contrast the agricultural systems of the Moahunters, Maori, and Europeans.

5. Recognize the cultural imprints on New Zealand of the Maori and Europeans.


Materials:

Maps (provided in lesson)
Natural Vegetation of New Zealand
Current Agricultural Land Use of New Zealand
Major Landscapes of New Zealand
Sheep Farm Landscape
Dairy Farm Landscape
Crop Farm Landscape

Slides of New Zealand Showing Maori Landscapes and European Landscapes

Bibliography:

Cumberland, Kenneth B. "A Century's Change: Natural to Cultural Vegetation in New Zealand." GEOGRAPHICAL REVIEW, 31: 529-54.

Cumberland, Kenneth B. and James S. Whitelaw. THE WORLD'S LANDSCAPES: NEW ZEALAND. Chicago: Aldine Publishing Company, 1970.

Pawson, Eric. "Two New Zealands: Maori and European." INVENTING PLACES: STUDIES IN CULTURAL GEOGRAPHY. Melbourne: Longman Cheshire, 1992: 15-33.

Background:

New Zealand was a mostly forest land before humans set foot on it. Since the arrival of human populations, the natural landscape has been impacted by three distinct cultural groups.

The first group to inhabit New Zealand was the moahunters (A.D. 700 through the 14th century). These indigenous people were at first primarily hunters and gatherers, focusing their efforts on the moa bird. The moa provided food and material for clothing and tools. Artifacts from moahunter villages include ornaments, fish hooks, spear points, and awls made from moa bones. Moahunters also used earthen ovens to cook their food. Many moa bones are found in and around these ovens.

Eventually, moahunters began to use fire to clear trees in order to have land for agriculture. This practice greatly impacted the natural vegetation, destroyed many forested areas, and disrupted ecosystems. Formerly forested areas became grasslands and soil erosion became a problem.

The removal of forest exposed the thin gravel soils of the plains and head waters to rain and frost and wind, setting off New Zealand's first cycle of manmade erosion. Increased run-off and the increased debris load of rivers swirled across the plains at melt water season inundating river mouths, burying a forest on the present day site of Christ Church with 12 feet of detritus, and perhaps destroying or entombing moahunter settlements at the mouths of these wild and then uncontrolled waterways. (Cumberland THE WORLD'S LANDSCAPES: NEW ZEALAND 16-17)


The next occupants were the Maori, arriving sometime between A.D. 1200 and 1400. The Maori believed the land to be sacred and conserved the natural environment much more than the other occupants. They farmed the sweet potato, taro, yam, and gourd. They also burned natural vegetation to make room for crop farming; but, unlike the moahunters, they improved the soil to increase production.

While the moahunters only had crude villages, the Maori had more elaborate settlements. The center of the village is the meeting house, a carved wooden structure. They built enclosed villages that had dwellings with detached kitchens. The size and quality of homes reflected status within the community. Their increased presence ensured a permanence which the moa hunters could never achieve. Although no longer dominant on the landscape, the Maoric presence is nevertheless still visible in parts of New Zealand.

The most recent occupants, the Europeans, have made the most significant changes to the natural landscape. Extensive sheep grazing, gold rushes, timber exploitation, crop farming, dairy farming, and urbanization have changed New Zealand's landscape dramatically. Europeans viewed nature as something to be used for man's benefit.

Between 1890 and 1900 no less than 14,000 square miles of forest was destroyed....Swamp and swamp forest have suffered a similar...fate. The peat soils of the Hauraki-Piako lowland, of the middle and lower Waikato Valley, and of coastal Mauawatu-Horowhenua have been cleared for dairying. (Cumberland THE GEOGRAPHICAL REVIEW 539-540)

European settlements range from farming communities to large metropolitan cities. Auckland, New Zealand's largest city, is a large manufacturing center with extensive transportation systems. In the suburbs, there is an emphasis on detached single family homes. They have "neatly manicured sections with lawns, gardens, paths, garages, and houses set out in rather regimented fashion" (Cumberland THE WORD'S LANDSCAPES: NEW ZEALAND 169). Most New Zealanders are now city dwellers. Urbanization, and all its attendant affects on the landscape, arrived with the Europeans.






Activities:

Part I

1. Put students in small groups.

2. Pass out copies of New Zealand's Natural Vegetation Map and New Zealand's Current Agricultural Land Use Map.

3. Have each group compare and contrast the two maps. They should note changes as well as discuss how those changes might have come about.

4. Have each group share its findings with the class.

Part II

1. Discuss with students the idea of sequent occupance with students.

2. Identify the sequent occupance of New Zealand (see background information).

3. Ask students which occupants might have had the most extensive impact on New Zealand's natural landscape and why.

4. Discuss the three cultural groups and their different agricultural systems and views of nature.

Part III

1. Divide the class into small groups.

2. Distribute the maps of European New Zealand's three agricultural landscapes--sheep farm, dairy farm, and crop farm.

3. Have each group compare and contrast the three landscapes. They should discuss changes in natural landscape, why such changes might have occurred, and what impact each had on the natural landscape.

4. Have each group share its findings.

Part IV

1. Show slides of New Zealand's Maori cultural landscape and European cultural landscape.

2. Discuss each group's cultural imprints.

3. Explore reasons why each group responded to the natural environment in the manner that they did.

4. Talk about how social values impact interaction with the natural environment and the development of the cultural landscapes.

Extensions:

1. Have students research the cultural landscape of New Zealand's major metropolitan centers (see the Urban Landscape Map).

2. Discuss the location of New Zealand's wild landscape and its farm landscapes (see the Major Landscape Map). The discussion should focus on both the where and the why.

Evaluation:

Give students a small test that includes some multiple choice questions and some short answer questions.

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