Skip to content

History · NCEA Level 1

92026 · Historical concepts

Use mana, whakapapa, tūrangawaewae, cause and effect to think across contexts.

Open LearnOpen PractiseOpen Exam

Key concepts

  • A tool, not decoration

    Mana, whakapapa, tūrangawaewae, cause and effect are ways of thinking about the past, not chapter titles and not ornaments. “The Land March showed mana” is a caption. “The Land March showed mana, whakapapa and tikanga” is the same caption with extra decoration. “Dame Whina Cooper could lead Te Rōpū o te Matakite from Te Hāpua to Parliament in 1975 because her standing was already recognised across iwi, and the march exercised that standing in public” is a tool at work. The concept has to change what you notice. If it does not, you are still writing the story of the event.

  • Only the five specified concepts

    For 2026 the paper specifies concepts from this closed list: mana, whakapapa, tūrangawaewae, cause and effect. You do not choose a favourite from a longer menu on the day, and you do not add a sixth. Cause and effect are two concepts, not one combined idea called “causation”. The booklet will name one concept for the unseen sources. The studied-context parts will name two. Significance is a different standard. Perspectives are a different standard. Tikanga is not a specified 92026 concept — do not invent it to decorate an answer. Later units teach each listed concept on its own terms so you are not left reciting a one-line gloss under exam pressure.

  • Same event, different tool

    A tool earns its place by changing the question you ask of the same facts. On the 1975 Land March, mana asks whose standing made a national hīkoi possible. Whakapapa asks what relationships among people, whenua and earlier loss the march made visible. Tūrangawaewae asks about a right to stand in place — Te Hāpua as a departure on whenua, not “people stood up”. Cause asks what cluster produced the march; effect asks what followed, including the Memorial of Rights on 13 October. If you change the tool and the paragraph does not change, none of the tools is in use. That is decoration with a longer word-list. Later units teach each tool properly. This page only needs you to see that they are not interchangeable stickers.

  • Contexts that involve or influence New Zealanders

    A context of significance to Aotearoa New Zealand is one that either involves New Zealanders or has influenced them. Parihaka, the Waikato War, the 1975 Land March and the Dawn Raids all involve New Zealanders. The 1918 influenza in Sāmoa under New Zealand administration involves New Zealanders and influenced both places. An overseas event that never touched New Zealanders is the wrong kind of context for this standard, however dramatic it is. Official teaching pictures of a tool at work include Cooper’s leadership of the 1975 march as mana, and New Zealand’s refusal to quarantine the Talune — with the failure of assistance that followed — as one of several causes of later Sāmoan resistance. Those are public, teachable uses. They are not a licence to invent tikanga around either event.

  • Different contexts, then across them

    Achieved and Merit work within different contexts: you describe or explain the concept where it actually appears. Excellence examines the concept across contexts — what is the same, what changes, and what that tells you about the concept itself. That is a different kind of thinking from writing a longer paragraph about one march, and it is not a collage of unused concept words. The last unit in this pathway teaches how the 2026 paper splits that work between the booklet and a studied context.

  • Evidence carries the tool; it does not decorate it

    Historical evidence is a name, a date, a figure, a short quotation, or a combination that actually carries the claim. “Māori were unhappy about land” is atmosphere. “On 13 October 1975 the march presented a Memorial of Rights to Prime Minister Bill Rowling” is evidence. The evidence has to belong to the concept you are using. A date that only proves the event happened does not prove mana, whakapapa or tūrangawaewae was in play. Unused te reo in the same sentence is still decoration. Quality is marked, not length: a short paragraph that uses the tool, names the context and carries it with evidence outranks a page of narrative that mentions the concept once in the first line.

  • Understanding in context, not a memorised definition

    NZQA has been clear that the 2026 resource booklet will not print definitions of the concepts, and that you are not expected to produce a verbatim definition in your response. Understanding is shown by what the concept does inside a context. A perfect glossary sentence with no people, places or dates is weaker than an imperfect sentence that puts the concept to work on 5 November 1881 at Parihaka. Do not spend the first third of the answer defining the word. Put it to work.

  • Public facts only — do not invent tikanga

    You may use well-known public actions already taught in this pathway: Cooper at the head of the 1975 march; Te Whiti and Tohu at Parihaka on 5 November 1881; the Talune reaching Apia in November 1918; Grey crossing the Mangatāwhiri in July 1863. You may not invent a hapū’s internal kōrero, a private genealogy, a ceremonial meaning, or a tikanga the source has not given. Extra te reo is not extra marks. If the booklet is silent, write the relationships the source does give — standing exercised, people to place, event to earlier event, cause, effect — and stop. The standard marks conceptual use of evidence, not borrowed intimacy.

  • Standing, not a mood

    Mana in this standard is about standing that other people have to deal with. Cooper did not “have mana” because walkers admired her. She could call a national hīkoi, be hosted on marae from Te Hāpua south, and hand a Memorial of Rights to the Prime Minister on 13 October 1975 because her standing was already recognised. The feeling of respect is not the concept. The recognised standing, and what it allowed her to do, is.

  • Mana is exercised

    A concept answer has to show mana at work, not sitting as a quality inside a famous name. Te Whiti o Rongomai and Tohu Kākahi exercised mana at Parihaka by directing passive resistance — ploughing confiscated land from 1879, then receiving the Armed Constabulary on 5 November 1881 without weapons. Governor Grey exercised Crown mana when his forces crossed the Mangatāwhiri in July 1863. Ask what was done, by whom, and whose standing made that action possible or necessary.

Assessment

External · grade-score marked.

This is an external achievement standard. Whetū offers original exam-style questions marked on the NCEA grade-score scale. Grades are estimates, not official results.

A mock paper is available in Whetū: Mock paper · Historical concepts.

Learn

6 authored Learn units for this standard.

  • Historical concepts as thinking tools

    This external is not a test of how many events you can retell. It asks you to use historical concepts as thinking tools — ways of looking at people, places and events so you can say what kind of relationship is in play. Official language calls them tools for thinking critically about the past. A concept used as decoration is a heading, a te reo word, or a glossary line stuck on a finished story. If you could delete the concept word and the paragraph would still read the same, you have decorated a narrative. You have not used a tool.

  • Mana

    Mana is one of the five concepts specified for 92026. In this standard it is used to think about authority, standing, and how that standing is exercised in historical action. It is not a stylish synonym for “power”, and it is not the same as “respect” as a feeling. If you can swap the word for either of those and the sentence still works, you have not used the concept.

  • Whakapapa

    Whakapapa is one of the five concepts specified for 92026. Students often reduce it to a family tree: who begat whom. That is one layer, and it matters, but it is not the whole tool. In this standard whakapapa is used to think about layered relationships among people, places and events through time.

  • Tūrangawaewae

    Tūrangawaewae is one of the five concepts specified for 92026. The usual English gloss is “a place to stand”. That gloss is a start, not the answer. The concept is about the right to stand in a place — through connection, belonging, residence, identity and authority — and about what happens when that standing is asserted or denied.

  • Cause and effect

    Cause and effect are two of the five concepts specified for 92026. They are listed separately on purpose. The paper may ask you for one of them, not a blended paragraph called “causation”. A one-line “because” is not enough in either case. Causes are plural. Effects ripple — short-term and long-term, in more than one place.

  • Concepts across contexts

    The 2026 paper for 92026 is a single question with more than one part. You write paragraph responses. You will be given an unseen resource booklet of primary and secondary sources. That booklet is not released in the week before the exam. Older unpacking that said the stimulus would go out early is out of date. Plan to meet the sources on the day.

Practise

36 Practise questions in “Historical concepts”. Feedback here is formative and is not an official NCEA grade.

  • Concepts as thinking tools

    A lens that changes what you notice, not a label stuck on a story

  • Mana

    Standing that is recognised and exercised — not a synonym for power

  • Whakapapa

    Layered relationships among people, places and events through time

  • Tūrangawaewae

    A place to stand, asserted or denied — not only a marae name

  • Cause and effect

    Causes are plural and effects ripple — one-line ‘because’ is not enough

  • Concepts across contexts

    Hold the concept still and look at more than one context with it

Sample questions

  1. A useful test for whether you have used a historical concept is:
  2. Which sentence is using mana as a thinking tool rather than as a caption?
  3. Match each specified 2026 concept to the thinking job it is for.
  4. In a sentence or two, explain what it means to use a historical concept as a thinking tool in a context of significance to Aotearoa New Zealand.
  5. In this standard, what is the most accurate way to use mana?
  6. Which sentence actually uses mana in the 1975 Land March, rather than pasting the word onto the story?
  7. Whose standing is in play in that encounter — and how?
  8. Which changes would put mana to work in this context? Select all that apply.

Practise 92026 in Whetū

Exam-style questions

96 original exam-style questions in Whetū. These are practice papers, not official NZQA assessments.

Back to History.