Potiki

Use these questions or activities to help gauge students’ familiarity with and spark their interest in the context of the work, giving them an entry point into the text itself.

Short Answer

What are some of the ways in which capitalistic ventures can harm Indigenous communities, as opposed to helping them? List 4-5 historical examples.

Teaching Suggestion: This Short Answer question offers the opportunity to introduce the themes of The Repression of Indigenous Populations and Their Struggle for Survival, The Inhumanity and Destructiveness of Capitalism, and The Relationship Between Humankind and the Natural World. At the core of Grace’s novel is a Māori family whose cultural traditions are threatened by oppressive business developers who seek to take their land for capitalist ventures. Potiki approaches this problem through multiple narrators who share different reactions to the situation. While various family members process the loss of their land in different ways, they ultimately stand their ground, contend with the destruction of their structures, and continue with their way of life. Students might work in pairs to brainstorm historical examples and connect their ideas to these specific instances; as a class, students can compile their ideas on the board, display, or a shared file to draw comparisons and observe points of commonality.