Aro-Mind

I've just finished a note about research and arts education. It's entitled ' Tertiary Arts Education and Research : A note to help artists and arts educators required to conduct research in tertiary education institutions'. The purpose of this note is to share some ideas with artists and arts educators who are working in tertiary institutions, particularly in the polytechnics and wa-nanga, concerning the matter of research and arts education. It has been my experience to note the general anxiety that exists with respect to research requirements placed upon artists and arts educators teaching in polytechnics and wānanga. For many, research activities amount to having to write lots of essays about things that have little to do with their art activities. This is a mis-understanding and much anxiety can be diminished by achieving an appropriate understanding of research as an activity designed to create new knowledge. My key idea is that both research and art are fundamenta...

Okay, here is my take on the types of mana. Firstly, I use this phrase from Māori Marsden: Waiho atu rā ki te ara tawhito i poua ai te ara mai o te mana Mana Atua, Mana Tupuna, Mana Whenua. Hence, he mentions three types: Mana Atua - mana derived from 'beyond'. In the past, this was the 'God' to whom one was dedicated. A person was baptised and dedicated to Maru perhaps, or Tū perhaps, so on. This was a person's final and most deepest commitment. In the Christian tradition, this is what Tāwhiao meant by 'piringa'. Ko Ihowa tōku piringa. Jehovah is my refuge. Today, I see mana atua as a term for this deep commitment. If one is a Christian it is more than just saying that my mana atua is Jesus Christ. It is about saying that my deepest, most passionate, most serious commitment is with love, compassion and faith. In other settings, a person may commit to beauty or justice and so on. Mana Tupuna - mana derived from one's inheritance. We usually see this as...

The key problem Māori Marsden had with the terms mana tangata, mana wahine, mana tāne is that they suggest that humans are the source of mana. However, the key principle is that we are potential vessels of mana never the source. He recognized, however, that quite a number of people have used these terms. The second difficulty with mana tangata, wahine, tāne etc is that the grammar tells us that these are types of mana do not denote where the mana itself resides or can be found. This follows the convention that the suffix tells us something about the word that comes before. Hence, whare nui tells us that this is a big house, rākau tapu says that it is sacred tree and so on. Hence, mana tangata translates as ‘human mana’, a type of mana but not where it resides or can be found. Māori’s preference was the expression, ‘te mana o te wahine, tāne, tangata’ etc. By contrast, this is a expression stating clearly where the mana can be found (the vessel) but not the type of mana. It is quite cle...

I've been thinking about skills and talents and knowledge. We have been moving along (for some time now) with the view that knowledge is a thing - something we can pass between one another, exchange, sell etc. New discussions highlight the idea of knowledge as process and particularly as a quality which enable somebody or some people to do something. We could call this the utility function of knowledge. What is valued now is knowledge that enables a person to do something. In education settings, the emphasis is now upon acquiring knowledge which enables a person to do things which will enable them to find employment and generally be useful to an organisation. All this raises many questions - such as, is the explanatory power of knowledge now subservient to the overall goal of being able to do something? That is, explanations that simply tell us something about a phenomena but offer us little by way of suggesting what we might do about it, are these explanations now devalued? Perhap...

Here's nine. One more to go... Be clear about why you are doing this study. Completing a research masterate or doctorate is a big ask. It requires a lot of your time and it will impact upon aspects of your life - family, social and so on. So be clear with yourself about why you are doing it. If you are doing it simply to get some letters after your name, forget it. If you are a Māori student, don't get suckered into the 'chosen one' myth or 'this is what your iwi wants of you'. You are the one doing the study. Do it for reasons that empower you. Harmonising your study with your personal goals, your aspirations for yourself. Use these research study programmes to help you with your goals. The more you can align your personal goals with the research project, the more satisfying it will be. Choose a topic you are passionate about! Choose a topic you really, really enjoy. Your research project is a big mountain to climb. You wont get to the top if you get bored al...

Here are some of the key themes I have been exploring in the last 2-3 years (in no particular order) 1. The Ūkaipō Moment - the creative, learning moment where depth is revealed, patterns are seen, relationships are understood, a warmth or glow is experienced and an enabling authority is achieved. 2. Eponymous Ancestors as kaupapa - moving our thinking about ancestors (particularly eponymous ancestors of our tribes) from physical progenitors to kaupapa, concepts, foundation and principles pregnant with meaning and creative potential and catalysts for meaningful action. e.g. raukawa as a perfume 3. Moving to indigenous creativity - growing our paradigm for action from social justice only to include creativity. Conceptualising social justice through a view of what is possible rather than through loss alone, compensation for past wrong doing. 4. Fostering the young Māori male - creating the circumstances where the young Māori male does cross important thresholds into adulthood.