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Professor Kereti Rautangata from Te Wānanga o Aotearoa has been instrumental in creating and developing new courses and learning paradigms over the past 10 years. His main role has been as the Director of Whakairo (carving), but he has also created a Spiritual Warrior school, which includes learning traditional Māori martial arts. He has designed marae and wharenui (meeting houses), as well as traditional waka; and he has also helped develop the first Bachelors degree in Whakairo. His greatest innovation has been to take traditional Māori spiritual ideals and incorporate them into his teaching, enabling students to develop not just economically relevant skills, but also spiritual growth. Through his programmes, Kereti has enabled many students to express themselves in Māori art forms. His vision is to develop Masters and Doctorate programmes in his specialist areas. Kereti's programmes are unique not only in New Zealand, but around the world and he is regarded as a true pioneer in his field. In the following article, Proffessor Rautangata describes his philosophy of teachings.
Background and specialty
From early adolescence, through to my adult years, I have had a number of profound inner mystical (transcendental) experiences, which have had a marked impact on my perceptions and awareness, … ‘de-conditioning' much of my secular learning. Hence my holistic approach to education and teaching.
For me, everything must be interlinked with the ‘Cosmic Plan', the all-inclusive Primordial Blueprint that human beings, irrespective of colour, creed or country, should ultimately be aspiring to. The inner certitude of this blueprint is directly related to one's inner experiences and timeless ‘glimpses' of a higher consciousness.
It is from these indelibly imprinted ‘flashes of insight' that one realises the importance to re-connect to a holistic education; and re-establish our (original) ability to function as multi-dimensional beings, in a multi-dimensional universe, to fulfill our real potential in this world of duality.
Hence for me, the art of teaching is coined in the phrase:
"Tahuna te Ahi-para papa-rākau-a-Tū, Oi' he ngākau-toa, Oi' he Manawa toa"
"Fan the potential spark, lying dormant in the psyche of a tauira (student & teacher), into a flamboyant shield of glory"
The subject matter, in whatever discipline, then becomes a means and expression by which we attempt to manifest the unmanifest, give form to the formless, or finite the infinite. Through conscious techniques and practice you can develop, both in yourself, and your tauira, a transparent vision in all things, where you are able to perceive both its visible and invisible aspects simultaneously (when operating from ‘higher' consciousness).
Personal philosophy
 I passionately believe that when great love and great skill combine you can expect a masterpiece, i.e. when the head and heart combine, real inspiration and production can happen in the tauira. The skills we can indeed teach, the love, we can best exemplify.
In my view the true artist is a cosmic explorer. And the meagre task of the carver is to humanise that which is divine, and consequently render divine that which is human, as is implicit in the word ‘Whakairo' (Rākau) itself ‘To make manifest, gnosis, divine knowledge and profound understanding' (in wood).
The highest function of all great art is as a bridge to the great beyond.
Matter and spirit are interlocked. Neither matter nor spirit means anything in itself.
It is important only that they meet each other in human form, and all dualities are unified. This is what we endeavour to express in our work.
For me Whakairo (carving), is the best ‘excuse' for that to happen.
Best practice
‘Best practice' for me is based on the quality of the processes and the acquisition of the knowledge and excellent practice by the tauira themselves, which will inevitably produce a quality product. Any system that is successful in connecting, igniting and expanding perpetually, the perception of the individual, makes for best practice!
I believe that it is important to affirm and re-affirm the inner beauty of the tauira's own cultural identity or legacy first, before launching them into the realisation of their own unique and universal origins, and inter-connectedness with all things, and people.
An indigenous point of view
I place great value on basing my teaching on our indigenous point of view as a Tohunga Whakairo, utilising practical, visual and sonic examples and techniques for teaching Māori values (as well as universal). For example, the Tura-moe practice of meditative learning, where the body is completely relaxed, but the mind is trained to be ever awake and alert, for learning such things as Whakapapa, Tātai kōrero, Waiata, Karakia, Aoteatea-Whakairo and so forth.
In the Whare Tūtaua (Māori Martial Arts) school, I also utilize the techniques of Taumata Angiangi (Bio-rhythms) of each individual participant, as a guide to know when and what to best teach them, at that point in time.
A vision for future educational systems
1. As a fundamental basis, to the advancement of our planet, education of the future must be based on unity and synthesis, both inter-disciplinary and within the psyche of the individual student, starting at an early age, so as to balance the competitive, exploitive, mechanistic, linear and horizontal thinking patterns, and the three-dimensional world-view currently predominating education systems today.
2. Education really needs to become the ‘art of inner-exploration' and the ‘science of the Self‘- psychologically and spiritually orientated, whereby the tauira (students and teachers) can re-discover their own true source of internal happiness, joy, stability, spiritual stature, and their roles in society.
3. The future challenge now for science, (with all its technology), is to re-discover and explore the parallel multi-dimensional universes and establish the validity of the timeless experiences of the mystics and those advanced adepts with cosmic consciousness, for the true fulfilment of holistic education in the future ... for the eventual illumination of our whole planet.
Plans for the 'Excellence in Innovation' award
I plan to research and write a full treatise on ‘The Spiritual Symbolism of Whakairo' set in a particular Māori marae context, which will describe the truth principles involved in attaining esoteric knowledge, by way of an in-depth study of Māori and universal cosmic prototypes and concepts, to help advance our arts, Whakairo in particular, in the near future.
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