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Humanities-aronui signifies a distinctive body of cultural knowledge created from interaction between the many cultures and languages of people resident in Aotearoa New Zealand and anchored by the bilingual text of the Treaty of Waitangi.
The humanities-aronui are bodies of knowledge and modes of enquiry and reflection concerning what it is to be human. In the Western tradition, the humanities have been identified with literacy and with value-laden knowledge, the core requirements for establishing and maintaining a civil society. They connect the texts of the law with those of religion, philosophy, ethics, economics, history, science, technology, the arts and architecture. In the more holistic Maori world view te kete aronui (the basket of secular or profane knowledge), one of nga kete wananga (the three baskets of knowledge), may encompass theoretical and practical knowledge about the sciences as well as the humanities.
The creation, transmission, collection and preservation of the humanities-aronui depend on the institutions responsible for the collective memory of our society – libraries, archives, galleries, museums, whare wananga, the media, schools and universities.
Te Whāinga Aronui The Council for the Humanities was a charitable trust, it's members now making up the Humanities Committee of the Royal Society of New Zealand. The members include leaders in academic, cultural and public sector organisations. They are:
Professor Ken Strongman
Pro-Vice Chancellor, College of Arts, University of Canterbury
Jonathan Mané-Wheoki
Director Art and Collection Services, The Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa
Associate Professor Lydia Wevers
Director, Stout Research Centre for New Zealand Studies, Victoria University of Wellington
Penny Carnaby
Chief Executive / National Librarian, National Library of New Zealand
Professor John Drummond
Dean of the School of Language, Literature, & Performing Arts, University of Otago
Associate Professor Charlotte Macdonald
School of History, Philosophy, Political Science and International Relations,
Victoria University of Wellington
Associate Professor Jan Pilditch
Associate Dean Academic Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences, University of Waikato
Helen Renwick
Associate University Librarian, University of Auckland
Professor Warwick Slinn
Head, School of English and Media Studies, Massey University
Dame Cheryll Sotheran
Director, Creative Industries Sector, New Zealand Trade and Enterprise
Te Kenehi Teira
Kaihautu, New Zealand Historic Places Trust
John Edgar is a New Zealand sculptor with a strong interest in the way in which work with stone can explore the meanings of cultural signs, especially the role they play in establishing, sustaining and critiquing relations to land, nation, and ethnicity. His sculptures, both large and small scale, are characterised by an astonishing formal precision and a deep sensitivity to the qualities of the stone with which he works.
The Council expresses its gratitude for his willingness to permit images of some of his works to be adapted and presented on this website. The works are:
About Us: ‘Code’ 2001, media: marble, granite
Academy: ‘Vein’ 1995, media: granite, jasper
Associates: ‘Recess’ 2003, media: granite, serpentine, marble
Awards: ‘Red Cross’ 1999, media: andesite, granite
Contact: ‘Calculus’ 2001, media: stone, marble
Our work: ‘Cross country’ 1996, media: granite, marble, glass
They can be inspected on his website.