Public Seminar: Visual Literacy

The Visual Studies Network Research Group

invites you to a seminar by Metiria Stanton Turei and Ana Terry.

Brought to you with the support of Dunedin Public Art Gallery, City of Literature Dunedin, Dunedin School of Art and Otago University Visual Studies Network.

Metiria Stanton Turei |  “Indigenous Visual Jurisprudence – Reclaiming Sovereignty”

Law is not exclusively confined to the written word nor solely dictated by codification within colonial legal systems. Indigenous law is enacted through relational obligations, visual and performative traditions, and the intergenerational transmission of knowledge. It exists beyond the formal boundaries of text-based legality, woven into whakapapa, whanaungatanga, kaitiakitanga, and the relational ethics of care, reciprocity, and responsibility. Drawing on literature by Indigenous authors such as Ariella Aisha Azoulay, C. F Black, and Indigenous creative works from Paemanu, Robyn Kahukiwa, Zoe Black, and Maungarongo Te Kawa I consider the intersection of Indigenous creative works and legal theory literature in the development of Indigenous visual jurisprudence. Indigenous visual jurisprudence manifests as a reclamation of sovereignty articulated through visual and performative legal expressions - resistance woven into the fabric of cultural practices - a testament to the resilience of Indigenous legal orders.

Metiria Stanton Turei (Ngāti Kahungunu ki Wairarapa, Āti Haunui a Pāpārangi, Rangitane, Te Ātiawa) is a pukenga mātua (senior lecturer) in the Faculty of Law at Ōtākou Whakaihu Waka, University of Otago and holds an LLM, University of Otago. She teaches Mātauraka Ture me te Mātāpono (Māori law and Philosophy) and her research specialty is in Indigenous Visual Jurisprudence. She has an Honours degree from the Dunedin School of Art, is a textile artist and was a Member of Parliament for 15 years.

 Ana Terry |  “A Pictorial Turn: Visualising Education”

“Seeing comes before words,” observes Berger (1972), suggesting that visual recognition precedes verbal articulation. While this insight is foundational in early childhood education, by the time we reach tertiary level the academic focus shifts profoundly from image to text (Kędra, 2018). The relationship between seeing and knowing is not afforded the same academic rigour as that between text and knowledge (Kearney, 2020). This textual hegemony is at odds not only with the highly visual world in which we live and communicate, but it also disregards how best we learn – with images being key. Although visual literacy has long been identified as a key twenty-first century competency (New Media Consortium, 2005), tertiary education continues to lag in embedding it into academic culture and policy (Fragou & Papadopoulou, 2020). Over the past four years, Ana has been working to position visual literacy as a recognised and embedded interdisciplinary practice in higher education. In this presentation, she shares a research-informed visual literacy framework designed to support teaching and learning in this space.

Ana Terry is a principal lecturer and learning and teaching specialist with Te Ama Ako – Learning and Teaching Development at Otago Polytechnic and holds an MFA from the Otago Polytechnic. She teaches a postgraduate course in visual communication for learning design and is an academic capability partner working with Design, Dunedin School of Art, and Architectural Studies. She has a Master of Fine Arts from the Dunedin School of Art, is a practicing artist/filmmaker, graphic designer, and an executive committee member of the International Visual Literacy Association (IVLA).