Koha and Kōrero: Intercultural Participation in Aotearoa

Abstract

This thesis examines intercultural dialogic art events that took the form of workshops. The art happened through and alongside the implementation of conventional methods of art-making such as drawing and pigment preparation. The type of art-making was designed to engage Māori participants at the events, and less well-known traditional methods were researched for this process. The starting point for the project was rock drawings and the ochre pigments used to make them. This thesis describes a methodology for working effectively with indigenous communities who were invited to participate in the project. Key Māori concepts of koha (reciprocity), tikanga (local protocol), kōrero (discussion) and ako (the interchangeability of teaching and learning roles) contributed to the participation of rural Māori communities in the dialogic art process. It was found that flexibility and responsive action were the significant elements that underpinned the platform for participation and discussion during the dialogic art workshops. Local participants became co-producers of the workshops. The art was created through the dialogue in the workshops and experienced by participants. As participants who collaborated in the events they are therefore also co-authors and the re-presentation of the art, to any further audiences, has been left with the participants to take in their own direction.