Indigenous curriculum design in Aotearoa-New Zealand aims to ensure Māori students succeed as Māori. There has been a shift in the political and ideological landscape over the past 30 years, and Māori-medium education now has the opportunity to focus on indigenisation. Māori-medium refers to schooling where Māori language and practices are the vehicle for all teaching and learning. The focus of this paper is on Hangarau (Māori-medium Technology).

This paper shares initial findings drawing on secondary data document analysis of a range of Ministerial data. The major study aim is to explore what an indigenised curriculum is and the implications on classroom Hangarau practice with the further aim of informing future policy. Multiple cycles of coding were employed to generate multiple interpretations of the dataset and an adapted approach to thematic analysis facilitated analysis of the dataset.

Key findings include: the significance of a local curriculum in delivering localised indigenous knowledge, the historical narratives connected to the place and the people that belong to the area where the school has been built; the importance of sustained and ongoing PLD opportunities for teachers; and the potential for integrated learning through cross-curriculum learning and development.