This article reports on a research that explored students' critical thinking in visual arts secondary education. The study was underpinned by an appraisal of the effects of the visual on students' lives and the importance for them to critically navigate these experiences. Aotearoa New Zealand's bicultural educational policies -- based on Maori and European views -- and flexible curriculum emerged as a rich conceptual vantage point from which to examine critical thinking. In this context, the curriculum underpins dialogical pedagogies and visual arts students engage in unique arts-based projects driven by their personal interests and visual culture. The research was framed by a/r/tography, a methodology that enabled the interconnection of the fields of art, research and education in response to what emerged from the data. Through verbal and artistic means, the findings show the critical potential of Indigenous knowledge, dialogical pedagogies and arts-based research methodologies.