Te Whatu Aho Rau - He anga arotake is a re-envisioned information evaluation framework co-designed with Reupena Tawhai (Kaiarataki Māori: Nāti Porou, Nāti Uepohatu, Te Whānau-a-Umuariki), to foster critical engagement with information sources in the secondary and tertiary education sectors in Aotearoa NZ, and beyond. It provides a holistic Māori-informed view of the information evaluation process to apply as you find and select quality information for a range of purposes. 

The phrase Te Whatu Aho Rau has many interpretations, two of which capture the essence of the information evaluation process:

·       ‘The weaving of a hundred threads’ - Whatu (verb) means to weave, aho (noun) are the lines or cross threads, rau (numeral) can mean many or hundred. These threads can represent how mātauranga is literally the weaving together of innumerable ideas, facts, and intuitions which together form the basis for what we refer to as knowledge.

·       ‘The eye catching a hundred lights’ - Whatu (noun) can mean the eye, and aho beams of light. We can see because aho reflect off surfaces these hundreds of reflected lights are then captured (rau verb) by the eye (the lens flexes and changes shape to focus light rays) to see clear images. There is an overwhelming amount of information that we need to process and filter before we can claim to have clear, informed knowledge of specific topic and to be able to identify the important ideas within the big picture.

When we speak about whakapapa, aho can mean line of descent. In this framework we are also tracing the multitude of whakapapa lines to see a cohesive picture of the information we are engaging with as we expand our knowledge.  

See the Information Literacy Spaces link above to access the previous Rauru Whakarare Evaluation Framework.