Te Mauri Pakeaka: paperback

This unusual and important book is in the first place a richly illustrated history of an innovative educational programme, developed by Arnold Wilson, that began in the 1970s in Northland and which brought schools and communities onto the marae and involved them in making art. Essentially students were encouraged to tell traditional stories through dancing, singing, drama, carving, painting. The programme was hugely successful both as art education and as away of developing self esteem and a sense of identity and shared values. But it was abolished in 1988 with the changes encompassed in Tomorrow’s Schools. The book is therefore also intended to open up discussion for the future about Maori education, the teaching of art, race relations, indeed a whole range of major contemporary issues. It is well written and moving and though not a conventional academic study it will work brilliantly in achieving its purpose.