Tuakana / Teina Art Exhibition
June 3 – 30, 2022
Ahuriri Contemporary Gallery - Napier

An exhibition of kaiako ( teachers) and ākonga ( students) from Toimairangi, Te Wānanga o Aotearoa – Hastings.

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 used in a learning environment, as tuākana becomes the teacher and tēina is from a more junior branch of the family and is 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 a discipline.

Tomairangi and Te Wānanga 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 or well being). Both tuākana and tēina learn from each other at the same time deepening the act or reciprocity and furthering the epistemology of the matauranga Māori learning environment. This is the intersection of rangahau informing creative practice, and creative practice informing rangahau which guides these ākonga as Toi pracititioners.

This exhibition is a collection of offerings that represent a diverse range of artists who 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.

Tuākana/Tēina catalogue 2022, Ahuriri Contemporary, Napier.