Sculpture Walking with Miss Fepulea'i

The students were completely mesmerised by all the sculptures and structures that were on the trail keeping them pretty engaged in what seemed to turn into a little hike along the bush trail. Overall the whole experience was a blast and I was so happy that I volunteered to come.  With the flax art session, it made me think of some ideas that I could incorporate in the classroom in a lesson of my own. This term, the Point England principal discussed with the students about learning where they come from and who their whakapapa are. This got me thinking about making this into a lesson for my home class and how using the flax art from today and making it research and art lesson for the students. Getting the students to go home and ask their parents and grandparents about their family history and researching further about their heritage and coming up with symbols and patterns they could use on flax art of their very own.

Monday 13th February 2017

When in the team meeting last week, an art field next Monday was mentioned and that some helpers were needed; I jumped at the opportunity. With a deep passion for visual arts I couldn’t be more excited to go on this trip and get inspired. Today was that day, myself and my fellow student teacher Mrs Sio volunteered as helpers on a small school trip to Waiheke Island to go on a sculpture walk. There were two teachers, Mr Jackson and Mr Vogt who were leading the trip of eleven students today and we were buzzing in the morning to get to the island. Getting to Waiheke took a bus and a train to get there and prior to the journey, the students had to get into buddies who they stick with for the whole day and Mr Vogt had to assign two people to take photos and video the trip. Mrs Sio was the minder for one of the students whereas myself and the two teachers were to watch out for the remaining ten students.

When we arrived at Waiheke we were greeted by our guide Charlotte who would be taking us through the tour. We then started by walking through the wooden walkway which looked like a strange but very beautiful abstract walkway made of timber. We were then introduced to a female artist from the South Island who makes art from flax leaves and showed us pieces of art drawn on flax by other visitors of the island and said people drew things that meant something to them, representing something in their lives. Using a piece of board to lean on and a blunt nail to draw with, the students and teachers spent 15 minutes drawing things like cultural patterns from their heritage and pictures of things they like, like animals and objects like bibles to represent their spiritual beliefs. This gave me some ideas of my own which I put into my flax which I focussed on where I come from, from both sides of my family and places I’ve lived my whole life. After the flax art, we took a bus around to the beginning of the sculpture trail and began our hour and a half walk along the coast of Waiheke; admiring the various artists work, the different shapes, materials and themes were phenomenal and very contrasting from each other. From objects hanging from the trees to solar powered speakers playing rural classical music, the art pieces were all something the students and myself had never seen before.