Understanding the Treaty of Waitangi through a Role Play

To understand the history of the Treaty of Waitangi and its importance, we played a Game of Land Trading.

First, we created our Wonderlands. Then we were forced to trade our resources for guns, tools and other things. During this game of trading, we experienced frustration, anger, unfairness and many other emotions when our wonderful islands were torn apart and we lost our favourite places. 

Sadaw said that the rules were heart-breaking ... Here is her recount:

Last week, Room 9 played a game of land trade. Ms Elena wanted us to feel like Maori people felt before 1840 when the Treaty of Waitangi was signed. When we started I felt happy to draw, but when we finished drawing… Ms Elena called us down to the mat. Our whole class wondered why she called us. I thought it was to show off our fantasy island, but instead… the British were going to trade unfairly! Ms Elena explained to us the rules. The rules were heart-breaking…. We couldn’t do anything but trade our land and resources. I saw other people screaming and yelling, “DON’T TAKE OUR LAND, WE’LL DO ANYTHING, JUST PLEASE DON’T!” But I saw the ‘British’ take their land. At the beginning, I was laughing that they didn’t take our land. When some British approached, I thought they were going to someone’s else’s land, but instead… they came to us! They took our Ice-cream mountains. I was still happy because they didn’t take my favourite part of our island!

Later on, when the game was finished, we felt frustrated. Our land was more like a small dot! When I looked at the other islands, they were much unluckier. My friends lost a lot of their land.

Now when I know what happened to Maori people and their land, I’m happy that it didn’t happen to me! 

by Sadaw Chan!