I come from South Africa and I lived not too far from where this battle took place. This attitude is very relevant to New Zealand. There are even some of the same players in the Land Wars that happened in New Zealand.
There have been a few movies about New Zealand Land Wars. Pick one of the ones below and watch it. You might have to be creative to find a copy as some are hard to find.
By the end of the lesson you should be able to create something like the history buff video on Zulu instead for one of the films above. At the very least a plan for a video.
Like in the history buff video he breaks it down into stages.
Give a brief summary of the film. Especially for those that haven't seen the film. Then you need to give some background.
Research the history behind the Land Wars. What were the causes for the war? Who were the main players? Why did it all happen? Collect primary sources like photos.
How are the different parties represented? Is it accurate?
Look at the film and connect what you have found out and connect it to the film. Are there characters based on real people? Are there places that were real places? Are they portrayed correctly?
Compare the plot to the actual history.
Then look at the inaccuracies and point out what is wrong in the film.
Once you have done this you should write up a script and using images you can plan a video. To pass the standards you don't actually need to create the video. But if you do please put them up on Youtube. I think we need to see more New Zealand content out there.
Teacher's notes
There are actually a lot of standards that can be done with this one project. With some hefty credits to go with them. The history ones are all worth 4 or 5 credits while the media studies is 3 credits. But if the students do decide to take it to the next level and plan and produce the video they could do the media studies ones that are worth 4 credits and 6 credits.
History
Level 1 - 91001 and 91002 (students could possibly squeeze in 91004 as well)
Level 2 - 91229 and 91230
Level 3 - 91434 (I wouldn't recommend the other standards at level 3 as I don't think this task goes in deep enough for students to achieve Excellence.)
Media Studies
This is for writing the script to the video and creating a plan to film it.
Level 1 - 90996 and 90993
Level 2 - 91255 and 91252
Level 3 - 91497 and 91494
There are also standards on producing a media product which this would fit as well but would require them to actually make the video.
If students are willing to go over the script live while the video is playing they could get away with speech credits as well.
If students don't do the media studies credits they could use their script for the English writing portfolio.