Waikato Educators

Waikato Educators, a stained glass piece created in 1994 by longtime University of Waikato Educator Donn Ratana. Ratana was approached by the Dean of the time to create a piece for the entry to TC block. This stained glass window artwork was the outcome; learning alongside stained glass experts, Ratana developed these 9 windows.  

The Teachers College began in 1960 in temporary buildings at what is now Melville high school. The foundation class of trainees had only 170 students, 122 were women and 48 were men. Today 75% of New Zealand teachers are women. The school relocated to the University campus in 1964, but only amalgamated with the University in 1991 becoming the School of Education. Along with a cow shed and A Block, the teachers college was one of the first buildings on campus. It is now the Faculty of Education and is the largest faculty on campus. 

Taking inspiration from educators in his own life, his kuia and mother, Ratana pays homage to the female educators and students of the school. The rolling collection of shapes replicate the concept of kowhaiwhai, an ongoing pattern that continues in perpetuum. Warmer hues join to form figures dancing across the windows. The colours are a reference to Hineahuone, the first woman shaped by Tāne out of red clay at Kurawaka.  

The colours flow through the figures as each reaches out to the next. This connection is very deliberate as the orange, red and yellow flow is representative of the Waikato River, more specifically the whakatauki : 

Waikato-taniwha-rau
He piko, he taniwha
He piko, he taniwha.
Waikato of a hundred taniwha
At every bend a taniwha can be found. 

The Taniwha are metaphoric of the chiefs of Waikato and express the mana and strength of the Waikato people.  

Flipping across the panels the figures are also a visual expression of the diversity of students who come through the faculty. Often associated with churches and rigid institutional artworks, Ratana chose to create more fluid and loose expressions of forms in the glass in line with his own painting style.  

Waikato Educators is a powerful homage to women and their roles as educators both in formal positions and as community members throughout the history of society. By using their bodies as the bends of the river, Ratana elevates women to the same level of chiefly respect and power. Ko te wahine he whare tangata, he waka tangata - Within the female is the nurturing home of humankind and the channel from the spiritual to the physical.