Bigger Context
EVEN BEFORE WE START TO WALK, WE DANCE. We sing even as we attempt to talk. The first sounds we make are shaped into words through playful repetition, and all the world is a drum for us to hear the rhythm of the planet.
We clumsily hold a crayon and scrawl our personal mark on time. We walk around in our mother’s slippers so we might better understand her and our relationship. The beginning of empathy and compassion is forged in the pretend social play of childhood. Play is the precursor and defining feature of all art-making. Every human is an arts maker. We are all born as creatives so we can begin to understand and then shape the world in which we live. Our connection to the arts sits at the heart of our shared humanity. We all know instinctively that when the world is in a mess, the arts are there for us. When we were very little we used them to learn, to develop relationships, to begin defining who we are and who we might become. It is no wonder then that as schools reopen we should turn to the arts to nourish ourselves.
This section of Te Rito Toi provides some further reading and materials to consider the role and the place of the arts and well being as the centre of the return to education.
~ Professor Peter O'Connor, University of Auckland
After the fires in Lahaina on August 8, 2023, the Maui Arts & Cultural Centre connected with the Centre for Arts and Social Transformation to create resources for teachers and families, using the arts as a source of hope, light, and love in disaster circumstances.
Maui Arts & Cultural Center opened in 1994 as the culmination of a long-standing dream of Maui’s residents to build a world-class gathering place for the arts. Now familiarly known as "The MACC," this center has been described by The Maui News as “the artistic and educational heart of an entire community” and “Maui’s entertainment and arts crown jewel.”
Our Research
Seeding Possibilities with the Arts
TE RITO TOI IN SCHOOL DURING COVID-19
This report examines the use of Te Rito Toi in twelve schools during Covid-19 in 2020. It explores the way in which teachers adapted the resources to their own needs and the outcomes derived from its use. It also identifies the key factors that made the arts in schools possible. The implications of this study for future crises are considered.
While we appreciate that Te Rito Toi was initially developed to help students return to school post COVID-19, we have watched this project grow and develop into a set of resources that are applicable for use by teachers, artists, and homeschool educators to work with children following many types of traumatic events and experiences.
Other Publications
Dunn, J., Stinson, M. (2012). Learning Through Emotion: Moving the Affective in From the Margins. IJEC 44, 203–218. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13158-012-0058-x
Dunn, J. (2017). Do you know how to play? A “Beginners Guide” to the Vocabularies of Dramatic. In C. Rozas Gomez and P. O’Connor (Eds.), Playing with Possibilities (pp. 34-49). Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
Estellés, M., Gregorzewski, M., O’Connor, P., & Bodman, H. (2022). Beyond the pandemic: Classroom dialogues about citizenship in turbulent times. Pacific-Asian Education, 33, 39-54.
McLachlan, A., Kingi, T., Waitoki, W., Cribb-Fox, M., & Cribb-Fox, W. (2023). Te Whare o Oro: A mātauranga Māori framework for understanding the roro. Te Atawhai o Te Ao Charitable Trust. https://teatawhai.maori.nz/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Te-Whare-o-Oro-20231116.pdf
Mutch, C. (2020). Crisis leadership: Evaluating our leadership approaches in the time of COVID-19. Evaluation Matters—He Take Tō Te Aromatawai, 6, 69-92.
Reproduced with permission from the publisher.
Mutch, C. (2020). How might research on schools’ responses to earlier crises help us in the COVID-19 recovery process?. SET: Research Information for Teachers, 2, 3-10.
Reproduced with permission from the publisher.
O'Connor, P., & Pérez, K. (2025). Applied Theatre and the Permacrisis: Ethics, Politics, Pedagogy and Aesthetics (1st ed.). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003207887
O’Connor, P., & Estellés, M. (2021). Te Rito Toi in New Zealand: A Caring Response to the Pandemic. Frontiers in Education, 6, 390.
O’Connor, P., & Estellés, M. (2021). Shot of love: the art of care in schools post disaster. Pastoral Care in Education, 1-12.
O’Connor, P. J., & Takahashi, N. (2014). From Caring about to caring for: case studies of New Zealand Japanese schools post disaster. Pastoral Care in Education: An International Journal of Personal, Social and Emotional Development, 32 (1), 42-53.
O’Connor, P. (2013). Pedagogy of love and care: Shaken schools respond. Disaster Prevention and Management: An International Journal, 22 (5), 425-433.
O’Connor, P., & Aitken, V. (2013). Arts education: Being Awake in the world. In Facing the big questions in teaching: Purpose, Power and Wellbeing. Cengage Learning: Melbourne.
