Maori Battalion
(Te Hokowhitu-a-tu)
Response to Text. Highlight or answer each question to the best of your ability, including important information and detail to your answers.
Level One – Skim and Scan
- What did New Zealanders start to call themselves during the First World War?
| They started to call themselves Kiwis |
- How did the government encourage Māori to join the war?
| They used a war cry. |
- What was the war cry used to encourage Māori to fight?
| “E te iwi, whìtiki! Whiti! Whiti e!” (“O people,
prepare yourselves for battle! Spring up! Spring up!”) |
Level Two: Vocabulary
| Word | Definition | Your own sentence |
|---|---|---|
| Rural | Relating to the country personality of the place. | Texes is a rather rural state |
| Contingent | A group of people in a larger group of people. | This Contingent is rather big |
| Conscripted | Enlist someone into an armed force. | He is Conscripted into the army. |
Level Three: Inference (Responses require AT LEAST one full sentence)
- Why did some Māori feel unwilling to fight in the war?
| Because the government attacked their iwi 50 years ago |
- What did the British high command feel uncomfortable about, and why did they initially keep the Māori soldiers busy with digging trenches?
| Because they didn’t like the idea of the Maori working with the European. |
- What does the chaplain’s prayer tell us about who the Māori soldiers were responsible for?
| The prayer says “Remember you have the mana, the honour, and the good name of the Maori people in your keeping this night.” so the prayer is telling us that the Maori soldiers had the lives of the Maori people riding on their backs |
- How did the First World War change the relationship between Māori and Pākehā?
| Since they worked together and worked as friends not foe they became friendlier to each other but there was still racism towards Maori. |
- How did World War One change, and shape New Zealand’s national identity?
| Since they started to call themselves kiwis they felt more independent of the British empire. |