Mason Holloway – Te Pou Ahurei: A Cultural Framework for Art Education
Te Pou Ahurei, introduced initially as ‘the cultural framework’, was developed as an assessment for the Mātauranga Māori Mahinga Toi class taught by Toni Herangi at the Waikato Institute of Technology. Conceived as a pedagogical approach grounded in te Ao Māori, it provides a way to recognise and honour the positionality of tauira (students), using their values as the foundation for creative projects. Since its integration into the Waikato Institute of Technology’s School of Contemporary Art curriculum, Toni Herangi, Mason Holloway, and Tim Croucher have expanded its application across a variety of classes. Today, Te Pou Ahurei serves as a student-centred delivery approach across multiple classes, not just the Mātauranga Māori Mahinga Toi class, and no longer just as an assessment component.
Biography
Mason Holloway is a faculty member at the Waikato Institute of Technology. He completed his art education at the Tianjin Academy of Fine Arts, after which he participated in exhibitions in China and Germany. Upon returning to New Zealand, Mason began teaching Contemporary Art at the Waikato Institute of Technology, where he continues to teach across the Certificate, Undergraduate, and Postgraduate levels.