Tapu-gogy — by Vini Olsen-Reeder
In the Classic’s Museum (Level Five, Old Kirk), coupled in amongst lively memories of Ancient Greece, is a taonga belonging to teacher Dr Vini Olsen-Reeder—the first course outline he ever wrote in 2014, for his course MAOR221. Alongside that are some other documents—a translation assessment from 2016, and also a course outline and assessment from 2022. There is a recording of a translation lesson that plays on repeat. These things really have no place in a Classic’s Museum—what are they doing there?
'A class in glass, unable to be touched.'
Tapu-gogy is a small exhibition that asks viewers to think about how Vini’s language classes have changed over the years. Increasingly, teaching and learning decisions are made by others, who do enter the room. We often call these decisions ‘teaching pedagogy,’ and Tapu-gogy explores whether pedagogy has become more akin to a museum artefact - too tapu for Vini, an actual teacher, to touch.
Māori philosophies of teaching (wānanga) require a transaction (tāutuutu) between teacher and student. This transaction origin stems from divine God Tāne-te-wānanga, who discussed the separation of Earth Mother and Sky Father, with his siblings. While the teacher is there to bind sacred knowledge to the class, there is no class until the student ‘transacts’ with participation and engagement, just as Tāne did. Knowledge is a transaction. The documents show how ultimately, less Māori is used in the course as time goes on, and the assessments have become more diluted. The silenced digital lecture on display asks viewers how long they might spend watching the lecture, if at all? How much will they interact with it beyond simply noting it’s there? Was the tapu of the lesson discarded—either when the recording was made, or when Vini muted the audio for Tapu-gogy? Would Tāne even consider this a transaction at all? All of these things are questions to answer, and they all revolve around how much respect is afforded to the tapu of knowledge, and teaching pedagogy.
‘He tāutuutu te wānanga'.
Together, these items explore the complexities felt by one language teacher trying to deliver meaningful Māori language courses in 2022. Classes can feel more like performances to mock Gods, a transgression of the bond I share with Tāne-te-wānanga as an educator, than meaningful transactions of language.
As a Māori person too, Vini has complex view of his taonga being held in a museum case, and the knowledge that he needs to tāutuutu with those things in order to keep them alive. Policy and petitions seem to hold the keys to the case in 2022.
Pedagogy feels too tapu for him to touch right now, but he longs for repatriation.
Tapu-gogy is on for the rest of 2022. Thanks to the Classic’s Museum Director Doctor Diana Burton for allowing this exhibition to proceed.