Ngā taonga - Teacher Resources

This Internal Assessment Activity meets all of the requirements of the Achievement Standard. It may be used unchanged, or can be adapted by the teacher. If adaptations are made, teachers need to ensure that all achievement levels can be met in the activity and are reflected in the Assessment Schedule. Assessor judgements need to align with the Achievement Standard.

This Assessment Activity could be completed concurrently with other Visual Arts Achievement Standards.

Best practice would see each step for this Assessment Activity followed up by a separate task that would allow students to create evidence towards Achievement Standard 91913 and Achievement Standard 91914.

Preparation

Before engaging students with this Assessment Activity, you will need to explore Visual Arts processes, materials, and techniques in class. Teachers will need to structure their programme so that students have engaged with established practice and key concepts before they start any assessment components. This could include learning techniques for recording visual information and representing their ideas in a visual diary.

In this Assessment Activity, students will begin with a practice-based inquiry into traditional Māori taonga.

You and your students will need to discuss the concept of taonga in te ao Māori. There are rich learning opportunities for connecting with cultural concepts that extend beyond the scope of this assessment activity. For this activity, ‘taonga’ refers to traditional Māori artefacts that are tangible and can be observed and visually recorded.

Examples of traditional taonga students may record include:

whakairo, for example poupou, waka huia, pouwhenua, waka
bone carving, pounamu
korowai
tukutuku
toi uku, for example papa hou.

There are examples of taonga listed in the Teacher Guidance document for you to refer to.

Schools are encouraged to build relationships and kōrero with those that hold knowledge on these art forms, such as kaumātua, artists, curators, and historians.

Where possible, teachers are encouraged to organise a class trip for students to view Māori taonga. This could be at a local marae, pouwhenua, school setting, library, workshop, or museum.

You will need to consider the tīkanga of any site you visit to ensure that learning and engagement is carried out respectfully and appropriately. If your students are approaching local knowledge holders, you will need to advise them on how to go about this respectfully. This could include advice on how to do an interview.

Ākonga can work in a group or individually to access this knowledge, but they will need to present their inquiry individually for assessment.

A holistic study of shape, purpose, aesthetics, style, and cultural significance of taonga will be documented in their visual diaries.

In the second phase of the inquiry, students will expand this to encompass other significant objects.

‘Significant objects’ are objects that are highly prized or have sentimental value. This includes objects that have a social or cultural value.

Students will need to communicate what they know and think about their chosen objects and the connections that they find between them. Their ideas and opinions about the connections between different peoples, cultures, and values are essential to success in this assessment.

Considerations

The emphasis of the assessment is to explore traditional Māori Art and make connections to contemporary practice or another culture. You will need to guide students to choose objects that have whakapapa (lineage and storying) attached to their value.

Cultural safety is vital when working within te ao Māori. For this assessment it is important to understand origins, placements, and reproduction of visual elements such as kōwhaiwhai and tāniko patterns. This includes the placement of a pattern on an object.

You and your students may need to discuss examples of where visual connections may be found across Māori and non-Māori cultures.

Step 1: Ngā taonga Māori and established practice

Ideally you will be able to organise a class trip to view taonga. If this is not possible, you will need to change the student activity and supply images for students to work from. Alternatively, you could organise a virtual marae or museum trip.

You will need to find appropriate images of taonga for students to label. This could include diagrams drawn by the students.

Depicting specific taonga may be inappropriate for cultural and copyright reasons. There are online resources and other methods for providing generic images for students to label as suggested above.

You will need to lead discussions on visual elements such as whakairo and kowhaiwhai patterning and their meanings. This extends beyond surface decoration to include the meaning, application methods, and the reasons why these were placed on taonga.

You will also need to discuss the form of the taonga, such as shape and materials (carved, painted, shaped like a boat, or other), purpose and function (for example, traditionally waka huia were for keeping huia feathers or other personal adornments, but Todd Couper, for example, makes them for other reasons).

Your students will need support to select at least two traditional Māori artists who have made taonga similar to what they have recorded. You can use the list of resources at the bottom of this section as a starting point to guide them.

Step 2: Other significant objects

You will need to help students identify and discuss contexts of significant objects from their own or another social or cultural environment that are of interest or may be important to them.

You and your students may want to consider a wider definition of significant objects, such as:

jewellery boxes, treasure chests, Delftware, and family heirlooms
kava bowl, ceremonial bowls, or tea pots
ceramic pots or ceramic artworks
triton or conch shell
medals or trophies.

Step 3: Reflection and connection

This component of the assessment should carry as much weight and effort as the taonga and ‘own’ object components. Students should be deliberate and clear with the visual and contextual links they observe between their studied objects. Students may start with a Venn diagram (image or text) and/or use arrows to visibly connect elements including shape, form, line, colour, symbolism, materials etc.

When recording and demonstrating their interpretations of visual and contextual connections between taonga and their selected objects, students may use, for example, collages, drawings, paintings, and other visual arts techniques. These would need annotations or some other indication of the connections the student has made.

Making judgements

Evidence should focus on relationships and juxtapositions through compositional or diagrammatic plans to illustrate how things connect. For higher levels of achievement, the student’s annotations will need to show informed understanding of Māori taonga and clear connections with the significant objects that they have recorded.

Helpful resources for this activity:

Toi Māori and whakairo books:

Ellis, Ngarino (2016, March). A Whakapapa of Tradition: One Hundred years of Ngati Porou, 1830-1930.
Smith, Huhuna (2011, April). E Tu Ake: Māori Standing Strong.
Flintoff, Brian (2011). Kura Koiwi: Bone Treasure.
Paama-Pengelly, Julie (2012, May). Māori Art and Design.
Panoho, Rangihiroa (2015). Māori Art: History, Architecture, Landscape & Theory.
Moko Mead, Hirini (2015). Te Toi Whakairo: The Art of Māori Carving.

Contemporary Māori artists:

Todd Couper
Davina Duke
Ross Hemera
Stevie Houkamau
Manos Nathan
Niki Nepia
Baye Riddell
Kareama Taepa
Wi Taepa.

Ministry of Education video:

Insights into kaupapa Māori: Taonga
Insights into kaupapa Māori on Vimeo