Context & Practice

C&P develops skills and understanding through the practice of collaboration, innovation and translation across contexts.  It uses Tikanga Marae as a lens with which to investigate creative practice and has been specifically designed to affect the Toi Whakaari context.  Its principles help to guide the schools inter-disciplinary learning, ethos and practice.  The delivery of the Tikanga Marae Model has been framed around the conceptual understanding of TURANGAWAEWAE – foundation or place to stand from, and helps to determine the scope and sequence of C&P curriculum over a three year model.

C&P is concerned with questions involved in performance practice, research and frameworks of engagement.

KOIWI  

The Koiwi model has been specifically developed within Toi Whakaari reflecting the school’s commitment to working with questions of difference – initially as a discussion around bi-culturalism.  It is a place where skills, ideas and practice are tested, applied and challenged. It promotes the awareness of difference and the rigour around group learning.  Koiwi is the schools collective movement through the Tikanga Marae Model. 

Koiwi is tiered learning, engaging across years and disciplines. Each session has a specific learning focus and facilitation and modelling are the primary teaching tools.  It exposes us to a myriad of different lenses, and learning experiences.  It is also an opportunity for the school to discover, practice and apply this movement in a regular fashion. Koiwi; are bones, frameworks of a body.  Iwi; is a group of people who are connected by a common purpose to move as if a singular body.

The whole school and often with other community members, including past graduates meet to practice Koiwi every Monday and Friday morning 8.30am. 

Context & Practice teaching staff:

Teina Moetara

Head of Context & Practice
Ko Whiria te Maunga, Ko Te Hokianga te Moana, Ko Pakanae te Marae, Ko Ngati Korokoro te Hapu, Ko Nga Puhi te Iwi.

Ko Manawaru te Maunga, Ko Te Arai te Awa, Ko Manutuke te Marae, Ko Ngati Kaipoho, Ngai Tawhiri nga Hapu, Ko Rongowhakaata te Iwi.

Born and bred in the world of ‘Maori’ Performing Arts, Teina hails from Manutuke, Turanganui-A-Kiwa (Gisborne). A performing member of the internationally recognized Waihirere Maori Club for over 20 years, many of them as a core composer, Teina has since moved on, becoming co-founder and tutor of Tu te Manawa Maurea Kapa Haka.

Whilst assistant principal and head of the immersion unit at Manutuke Primary School, Teina was offered a role in Disney’s theatrical production of The Lion King in Sydney, Melbourne and Shanghai.  It was here he became interested in translating forms of the performance across different theatrical contexts.  He has since co-directed and performed in a number of shows using tikanga marae frameworks to hold, challenge, support and innovate the creative process, including Manawa Pou, Pakiwaitara and The Trial of the Cannibal Dog for NZ International Arts Festival.

Jade Eriksen

Senior Tutor (Context & Practice)
Jade grew up in Gisborne, Tairawhiti, of Greek, Irish, Scottish and Danish descent. Since completing a Master of Theatre Arts – Directing from Toi Whakaari/Victoria University, her interest in the area of intercultural politics, identity and composition have led her to work mainly within the devised theatrical form. Jade has directed and devised award winning collaborative works including Yatra, Stamping Grounds, Migrant Nation, arcane (with her company theatreheuristic) and co-directed Penumbra for AK07 Festival. She currently teaches in devised composition at Victoria University as well as at Toi Whakaari.

Heather Timms

Senior Tutor (Context & Practice)

Heather, an Australian of Welsh, English & Dutch descent, was born in Malaysia and grew up in Hong Kong. Her particular interest in intercultural politics and socially engaged arts practice has led her to build and direct work with diverse communities in Australia, UK, India, Africa and now New Zealand. Projects Heather directs are recognised for their innovation and include Kariobangi, Nairobi urban slum community: Face-Off, The Cockburn Performance Project – Cockburn Aboriginal community; Spin, with the WA Ministry of Justice; her adaptation of Arundhati Roy’s the God of Small Things featuring a blended cast of actors and life size puppets; Memory – An Intangible Map with the Museum of Wellington; Manawa Po, Atamira & TakuRua  (urban historic site collaborations); and she performed and toured The Battalion with Te Rakau Hua – a Maori Theatre for Change company. She has a Masters in socially engaged performance from Edith Cowan University in Western Australia, and a strong commitment to questions of change and learning.Heather is the founding Director of Eko, who are building a long term inter-arts project within the Wellington Maori, Somali and Arts communities called the Southern Corridor Project. She lives in Wellington with her husband, artist Liam Barr and daughter Asha.