Creating Your Own Whakairo

Overview

This is lesson 23 of 30 in Exploring Whakairo Traditions. Students move from research, skill practice and guided experiments into their own whakairo project, establishing a clear intention, selecting appropriate processes and beginning a resolved personal work with respect for tikanga and cultural conventions.

Learning intentions

Students will:

• Develop a personal whakairo concept informed by prior learning and appropriate cultural conventions.
• Plan how materials, tools, pattern, form and surface treatment will communicate an intention.
• Apply learned carving and construction techniques with increasing control and care.
• Explain how their project connects to established whakairo practices without claiming or copying iwi-specific knowledge that is not theirs to use.

Success criteria

• I can explain the intention and cultural context of my proposed work.
• I can produce a workable plan, including materials, processes, safety steps and a sequence of making.
• I can begin my project using tools and techniques with control and care.
• I can use feedback to make a purposeful improvement to my work.

Curriculum links

• Produce a resolved work that demonstrates control of skills appropriate to cultural conventions: students begin a personal work that realises an intention and manages media appropriately.
• Produce a systematic body of work that shows understanding of art-making conventions and ideas within sculpture: students develop and document a related practical work through planning, making, editing and refinement.
• Demonstrate an understanding of methods and ideas from established practice appropriate to painting: students refer to researched artists, methods and ideas where these inform surface, colour or design decisions.
• New Zealand Curriculum competencies: managing self, thinking, relating to others, and participating and contributing.

Lesson structure (120 minutes)

1. 0–10 min · Welcome and cultural framing. Teacher opens the hook and cultural framing slides with a striking comparison between a carved object, its pattern details and a contemporary student-made form, then revisits the class agreements about attribution, tikanga, consultation and respectful use of motifs. Students write one sentence describing what they understand by “appropriate cultural convention” and share any questions.

2. 10–25 min · Project briefing and exemplars. Teacher uses the exemplar and project-brief slides to show how intention, form, pattern, material and process work together; clarify that students may respond to techniques and ideas studied, but must not reproduce restricted, sacred or iwi-specific designs without appropriate permission. Students identify two techniques or visual strategies from earlier lessons they may adapt and annotate one exemplar, explaining how its methods support its meaning.

3. 25–40 min · Individual planning. Teacher distributes the personal whakairo project planning sheet and conferences briefly with students, checking that each proposal is achievable in the remaining unit and has a clear relationship to prior learning. Students complete a concept statement, thumbnail sketches, intended scale, materials, tool list, process sequence, safety considerations, cultural source or influence, and two measurable success criteria.

4. 40–52 min · Peer critique and approval check. Teacher uses the critique protocol and planning-check slides to model respectful feedback: describe, interpret, question and suggest; teacher checks plans for cultural appropriateness, safety and feasibility before making begins. In pairs, students explain their intention and receive feedback using the prompts “What is clear?”, “What could be strengthened?” and “What needs further checking or permission?” They revise their plan and seek teacher approval.

5. 52–57 min · Demonstration and safe setup. Teacher demonstrates the first practical steps relevant to the available medium, including secure positioning, controlled tool movement, direction of cuts, dust or waste management, and correct storage; the safety sequence remains visible in the demonstration and safety slides. Students collect labelled materials, set up a safe workstation and show the teacher their starting position before using tools.

6. 57–105 min · Independent making: first stage. Teacher circulates, gives short technique demonstrations, photographs progress for process evidence and holds targeted conferences using the questions “What is your intention here?”, “How is the process helping you communicate it?” and “What will you refine next?” Students transfer their design, establish the main form or structure, and begin carving, constructing or preparing the surface. They record significant decisions and changes on the worksheet rather than rushing to decorative detail.

7. 105–120 min · Pause, document and next steps. Teacher signals a clean stop, then uses the reflection and plenary slides to structure a studio review. Students photograph or place their work safely, complete the worksheet reflection—one successful control, one problem-solving decision and one next action—and briefly share progress with a partner. Teacher collects plans or checks them digitally, confirms storage and tool-care routines, and previews the next making stage.

Resources

• the Exploring Whakairo project deck
• the personal whakairo project planning sheet
• Student project materials appropriate to the approved medium
• Whakairo tools and personal protective equipment
• Teacher-selected images of relevant established and contemporary practice
• Sketchbooks, pencils, rulers and tracing or transfer materials
• Devices or camera for process documentation
• Work mats, clamps, dust-control equipment and labelled storage
• Sink or cleaning materials and first-aid supplies

Assessment

• Formative assessment occurs through questioning during planning, teacher approval of each concept, and observation of safe, controlled tool use.
• Review the worksheet for a clear intention, appropriate cultural reference, feasible process sequence, safety planning and purposeful success criteria.
• At the end, use the student reflection and photographed progress to identify who needs technical support, cultural clarification or a revised plan before the next lesson.

Differentiation

• Provide a choice of manageable scales, materials and pattern complexity; offer a teacher-approved template or simplified form for students who need help initiating a design.
• Use sentence starters on the worksheet, visual demonstrations, step-by-step tool photographs and brief one-to-one conferences for students requiring literacy, processing or motor support.
• EAL learners may respond through labelled sketches, oral explanation or a bilingual glossary of key terms; pair them with a supportive peer without asking them to speak for another culture.
• Extend confident students by requiring a more complex structural decision, a deliberate relationship between positive and negative space, or a documented comparison between their process and an established practitioner’s method.