Being, Flow and Knowledge in Māori Arts Education: Assessing Indigenous Creativity

Abstract

This article reflects on issues of Indigenous creativity in Māori arts education, along with what we see as problematic tensions of the assessment of intangible elements. Our writing is motivated by a desire to start a global dialogue on Indigenous/Māori epistemologies, pedagogies and ontologies, and the contradictions and tensions that threaten these through global assessment drives within schools. We argue that current student assessment regimes are being increasingly influenced by international neoliberal agendas, which focus on universal, measurable outcomes. By critically exploring the assessment of creativity in the arts from a Māori perspective, we reflect on several contradictions and tensions in current assessment drives within schools. In particular, the intangible dimensions of being and flow and their connection to creativity are examined, and we conclude with recommendations for further work in this area.

Reflections on New Zealand music education through the lens of Swanwick and Tillman’s model of musical development

“…The impacts of neoliberalism in education have been well covered in the literature (e.g., Harvey, 2005;Humpage, 2015) and for the New Zealand context more generally and in relation to music education by McPhail and McNeill (in-press). The profound impact of colonisation and responses to its effects in education is also a vast literature (e.g., Smith, Tuck, & Yang, 2018;Morgan & Manuel, 2020), and the challenges for New Zealand as a country, as well as in music education and the arts, are ongoing (Thorpe, Gain, & Wise, in-press;Hindle et al, 2015). Key ideas from postmodernism are also embedded in educational narratives in New Zealand, epistemological relativism being one of them, particularly in relation to Mātauranga Māori (see below).…”

“…When considering the ST model, David Lines, current lecturer in music education in the Music School at the University of Auckland suggests that 'the idea of "ages and stages" is less of interest, with more attention turned to the diversity of children and cultural differences' (personal communication). In Aotearoa New Zealand, we have an increasingly bicultural focus upon how Te Ao Māori (Māori world view), Toi Māori (Māori Arts) and Mātauranga Māori (Māori knowledge) perspectives, indigenous concepts, philosophies and ways of knowing might be authentically woven into arts curriculum and assessment structures (Hindle et al, 2015;Reihana-Morunga, 2020). The New Zealand school curriculum (Ministry of Education, 2007) is currently undergoing a 5-year-long 'refresh' where Mātauranga Māori is explicitly included as 'foundational learning' (Ministry of Education, 2021).…”

An Ontological Perspective on the Development of Home–School Partnership Relationships with Indigenous Communities

“…Situated in theory and language, epistemology is based on a need to understand everything in our world(s) — a methodological perspective centred in cognitive processes. In contrast, ontology as being or soul is situated in action and transformation or change (Hindle, 2010; 2014; Hindle, Hynds, Phillips, & Rameka, 2015). Marx (1973) infers that the purpose of philosophy should be to change the world.…”

“…Concepts regarding Māori ontology seem difficult to reconcile in education systems that are focussed on measurement and only student academic outcomes. Increasingly, education seems to be influenced by neoliberal agenda that represent few, if any, connections with Māori values, knowledge, pedagogy and ways of being (Hindle, et al, 2015). Mika (2010) asserts that this state of affairs ‘is one of the remaining colonial challenges of Māori’ (p. 2).…”

“…This metaphor invokes a sense of on-going tension between the mountains, the sea and the shoreline: pressure points, tectonic plate movements, eruptions, treacherous underwater — visible or less visible (Hynds, 2007) — terrains, and rising sea levels. We assert that it is these spaces of tension/dilemma/interface that provide the opportunity for us to create new knowledge, ways of knowing and ways of being (Hindle, 2014; Hindle, et al, 2015). As a space for the possibility of building authentic relations between schools and families, this metaphor is important as it acknowledges the fact that there is tension in building relationships but emphasises the need for space to work through these tensions constructively.…”