An exhibition of Kaiako (teacher) and Ākonga (student) from Toimairangi, Te
Wānanga o Aotearoa – Hastings.
3 June – 30 June 2022
Ma te tuākana te tēina e tōtika, ma te tēina te tuākana e tōtika
The older will lead the younger and the younger will lead the older
Tuākana is a senior branch of the family, an elder brother or sister, this can also be
use in a learning environment, as Tuākana becomes teacher and Tēina is from a
more junior branch of the family, a younger brother or sister and Tēina becomes the
student. This is a valuable relationship in developing a teaching-learning
environment, where senior members guide the younger or beginner members to
advance within an akoranga (discipline).
Toimairangi and Te wananga o Aotearoa has not only developed a relationship of
kaiako (teacher) and ākonga (student), but enhanced a toi whānau relationship that
extends into tikanga of ako principles of koha (offering), Ahurutanga (comfort),
kaitiakitanga (guardianship) and mauri ora (life force well-being) and where the
shared information of Tuākana to Tēina acknowledges that reciprocal in reverse as
where the kaiako learns from the ākonga at the sometime, which furthers the
epistemology of the teaching and learning or mātauranga Māori environment. This is
the intersection of rangahau informing creative practice and creative-practice
informing rangahau which guides our ākonga as toi practitioners.
This exhibition is a collection of offerings that represent a diverse range of artist that
are developing their skills across different stages of their art career, with art works
that show an exploration into their own akoranga and kaupapa toi, reflecting their
political, cultural and historical beliefs. Art offerings that encompass their mauri, the
principle source of emotions of their essential quality and vitality of each artist as a
negotiation of spiritual and earth-bound balance within modernity.
