Ako Wānanga: The Art, Science and Spiritual Endeavour of Teaching and Learning in a Wānanga: A Localised Approach

Abstract

Wānanga are characterised and distinguished in Aotearoa/New Zealand statute by advancing education through teaching, learning and research informed and underpinned by tikanga and āhuatanga Māori1 . This differentiation has been necessary because the Aotearoa/New Zealand modern educational tradition has and remains largely a monocultural and one dimensional. As a result, positively different powerful potentials may be underutilised. Whilst the recent history of education in New Zealand, in so far as her Māori citizens are concerned, has come through orchestrated systems of assimilationist, integration, bicultural and most recently multiculturalist agendas, now more than at any other time in our colonial history, a move to Māori ways of knowing, doing and being are most pronounced. This is seen very clearly in the relatively recent dialogue and action of advancement framed within ‘Mātauranga Māori’ – Māori knowledge and practice.