Mari Ropata Te Hei

Mari Ropata-Te Hei is a senior lecturer and Programme Co-ordinator in Initial Teacher Education Programmes Te Aho Tātairangi – Bachelor of Teaching & Learning Kura Kaupapa Māori,  and Te  Aho Paerewa – Post-graduate Diploma Māori Medium Teaching at School of Māori Knowledge-Te Pūtahi a Toi, Massey University in Palmerston North, New Zealand. Her research focusses on using traditional Māori art forms as a  visual transformator of Māori knowledge within contemporary educational spaces, and as a framework for community and collaborative interaction.     Mari  also works within her own community developing and delivering traditional Māori language art forms to elevate both formal and informal cultural practices. Such practices include the role of Māori women in the art of the rituals of encounter. Mari has a particular interest in the education of Māori children within total immerson  Māori environments, practicing the philosophy of Te Aho Matua, the only education philosophy to come out of New Zealand, that encapsulates Māori epistemologies.