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 carry out a practice-based inquiry into the visual and cultural information at two different sites: a marae, and a site of the student’s choosing.

You and your students will need to discuss examples of where visual connections may be found both on the marae and in other cultural contexts. This could include looking at generic examples as a class before beginning the task.

The first step of the Assessment Activity involves a teacher-led field trip to a local marae.

Before the trip, you will need to talk to your students about:

• the tikanga attached to a marae
• the kōrero and visual language attached to the marae, including the interior and exterior of the wharenui
• how to engage appropriately with local iwi, organisations, kaumatua, experts, and knowledge holders during research elements of their task.

During the marae visit, you will need to encourage students to reflect on their surroundings and draw connections with their own cultural context. This will help them to select an appropriate significant site to explore later in the assessment task.

Considerations

The emphasis of the assessment is to explore features of marae and make connections to a site of personal significance to the student. You will need to guide students to choose a site with features that they will be able to link to the features of the marae. These links could be visual, structural, functional, or even related to location.

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: Marae visit

You will need to follow your school’s guidelines for organising an overnight field trip with appropriate permissions and safety measures.

You will need to consult with the marae about what is expected during the visit. Students must be prepared with information on protocols and what is needed for the noho marae such as:

• tikanga me kawa for the chosen marae including kaikaranga and kaikōrero, roles and responsibilities of a pōwhiri
• the pōwhiri process including waiata tautoko for your kaikōrero, koha, kai
• personal conduct and expectations during the noho
• what to bring, for example understanding the sleeping, washing, and eating arrangements and poroporoaki
• settling in (whakatau or whakawhanaungatanga)
• wānanga and oral histories
• structure of the wharenui and layout of the marae
• manaakitanga and reciprocity.

Discuss appropriate ways of documenting and recording visual information at the marae. When and where is photography acceptable? If you are unsure, consult with the marae or conduct some background research.

Where a noho is not possible, schools are encouraged to complete a day trip to their local marae. This could extend to a school marae, tertiary marae (such as Te Kuratini at Massey University, or Te Whānau O Awataha at Auckland University of Technology), or public marae (such as Rongomaraeroa Te Papa). Appropriate tikanga will need to be observed during the daytrip.

Step 2: Other sites or places of cultural significance

In the second phase of the inquiry, students will visit a site that is of significance to them such as their church, sporting location, a space of culture, or another community or school site. The space should have art or artefacts that students can view and easily record. Students will need to communicate what they know and think about both sites and the visual and cultural connections that they find between them.

You will need to guide students on their choice of site, and to identify what they can record so that they have sufficient examples of visual and cultural information to work with. They will need to research and record this information, in depth, in order to draw informed reflections and connections between both sites.

Visual and cultural information exists in a variety of places, spaces, and with various people. For example: the environment including rivers, hills, foliage, man-made landmarks such as buildings, road signs, or fences, as well as elements such as colours, textures, and patterns.

Step 3: Reflection and connection

This is the third component of the assessment for students and should carry as much weight and effort as the marae and their own site. You should support students to be deliberate and clear with the visual and contextual links they observe between their studied sites. For example, you could advise students to start with a Venn diagram (image or text) and/or use arrows to visibly connect visual elements including location, use of the site, foliage, who uses the site, images or signage around the site.

Students may use annotated collages, drawings, paintings, and other visual arts techniques to indicate 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 a marae context and clear connections between the two sites that they have recorded.

Helpful resources for this activity

Customary Māori art (established practice):

• Hiria Anderson
• Lyonel Grant
• Paki Harrison
• Hōne Taiapa

Marae and identity in a contemporary setting (established practice):

• Sandy Adsett
• Chris Bryant-Toi
• Robyn Kahukiwa
• Lisa Reihana
• Natalie Robertson
• Kelcy Taratoa
• Victor Te Paa
• Kura Te Waru Rewiri
• Cliff Whiting

Books:

• Brown, Deidre (2009). Māori Architecture — From fale to wharenui and beyond.
• Huia Publishers (2015, July, 1). Māori Carving: The art of recording Maori History.
• McRae, Jane (2017, March). Māori Oral Tradition.
• Panoho, Rangihiroa (2015). Māori Art: History, Architecture, Landscape & Theory.
• Salmond, Anne (2009, June, 3). Hui: A Study of Maori Ceremonial Gatherings.

Websites

Te Ara Encyclopedia of New Zealand — Story: Te kawa o te marae

[ File Resource ]

• Title: VA 1.1b Teacher Guidance
• Description: Visual Arts 1.1b Teacher Guidance
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