"Colonisation meant that a lot of Māori were renamed and those stories that were attached to those places were often erased," Harcourt said.
"So it's [about] getting young people to use the atlas to restore the places that they live in as well as exploring those bigger ideas of colonisation and naming.
"Teachers can use a resource that has been created by Ngāi Tahu.... and it's centering those stories. I mean there's multiple ways that New Zealand histories can be addressed and this is one that really has the support of Ngāi Tahu, so I think for those South Island teachers it's a really good starting point."
The framework could also be used to teach Year 7 to 10 students about ecological threats, and as a reference when studying social action.
Harcourt said it was a privilege to work with Ngāi Tahu, especially as his own ancestors were apart of the colonisation of the South Island.
"It was a real honour as Pākehā to be writing a resource for Ngāi Tahu, and part of the reason I enjoyed doing it was I knew that everything I was writing was quite carefully being scrutinised, and I felt that was a good example of how indigenous and non-indigenous educators could work together collaboratively," Harcourt said.
"In the background of it all was my own family history of colonisation in the South Island, so my great-great-great grandfather was James Macandrew who was a big, colonial administrator in the 19th Century.
"So it was interesting that I was writing this resource that was centering Ngāi Tahu histories of place and yet I was coming from this family history background that was totally implicated in the reason for that resource being needed."
A framework was launched at a workshop for teachers as part of Heritage Month Southland on Friday, 6 March, with more workshops planned throughout Te Waipounamu later in the year.
- RNZ
