Toi Ataata - Whakapapa, kōrero and tikanga in context
This part of the standard asks you to treat a work as a taonga with a whakapapa, not as an image with a caption. You are being tested on whether you can locate a work - whose it is, where it belongs, what it carries - and on whether you can describe tikanga-based decision-making accurately.
Every work has a whakapapa
The chain includes the maker and their hapū and iwi, the kōrero or pūrākau the work carries, the origin of the materials, and the place the work was made for - wharenui, waharoa (gateway), wharekai, or a contemporary gallery context. Naming these is analysis, not padding.
Permission and provenance
Motifs and kōrero can belong to whānau, hapū or iwi. Before reusing a pattern or a story, guidance is sought from kaumātua or whānau, and the permission and source are recorded. Attribute borrowed work properly: artist, iwi, date, and the building or collection it sits in.
Tikanga around materials
Harakeke is cut in daylight and not in rain; the rito (centre shoot) and its two mātua are left so the plant keeps growing; outer leaves are taken; cut flax is not stepped over or sat on, and kai is kept away from the work. Pounamu sits under Ngāi Tahu kaitiakitanga, and native timber requires permission. Frame all of this as kaitiakitanga - sustainable guardianship - rather than as a list of rules.
Worked example
A student wants tā moko imagery running across a poster as decoration. Reasoning: tā moko records the whakapapa and identity of a specific person, so lifted as generic pattern it misrepresents that person and can cause real offence. A better route is kōwhaiwhai or tukutuku motifs that the student's own kōrero can support, with the source pattern and its kaitiaki credited, and the meaning described as that hapū holds it.
Traps that cost marks
- Writing "the Māori believe…" instead of naming the hapū or iwi and the source.
- Copying an artist's motif and presenting it as your own design.
- Leaving the tikanga check until after the making is finished, when consent must come first.