Horizons of Insight Seminar - May 2012

To watch videos of this seminar, click here.

This seminar will discuss the methodologies, ethics, processes and procedures encountered in using new and emerging technologies to develop databases of Māori taonga in overseas museums, the digital repatriation of taonga and the creation of digital libraries of mātauranga Māori.

The speakers Arapata Hakiwai, Dr Wayne Ngata, Dr Hēmi Whaanga will focus on three Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga research projects that use technology to connect iwi, hapū and whānau with their taonga, history and mātauranga:

•    Virtual repatriation: a database of Māori taonga in overseas museums, led by Arapata Hakiwai from Te Papa, the National Museum of New Zealand

•    Te Ataakura: Re-connecting voyage collections in archives and museums through the creation of digital taonga, led by Dr Wayne Ngata, the Ministry of Education

•    The ethics, processes and procedures associated with the digitisation of the Pei Jones collection, led by Dr Hēmi Whaanga from The University of Waikato

The speakers will share the research teams’ experiences, methodologies and strategies developed in each project and discuss some of the common issues that arise when using new technology in this developing research area.



Nau mai, haere mai! All welcome!

Afternoon tea will be served at 3pm



Speakers

Arapata Hakiwai has tribal affiliations to Ngāti Kahungunu, Rongowhakaata, Ngāti Porou and Ngāi Tahu. Arapata has worked for the National Museum of New Zealand (Te Papa) for over fifteen years, having held a number of roles including Exhibitions Concept Developer, Curator and Community Partnerships Manager Māori for National Services, and is currently Scholar Mātauranga Māori, leading research on the Māori collections. Arapata was formerly the Manager of Bicultural Operations at Te Papa from 1999 to 2002 and Director of Mātauranga Māori from 2003-2009. He takes an active involvement in his marae and tribal affairs, and is a former council member for the museums membership organisation Museums Aotearoa. He regularly lectures at Victoria University and has a strong interest in digital/virtual repatriation kaupapa and is well published including being the co-editor of ‘Toi Ora: Māori Ancestral Treasures’ (2008). Arapata has extensive relationships with overseas museums and in the early 1990s helped lead the restoration of the carved Te Whānau-a-Ruataupare meeting house Ruatepupuke in the Field Museum, Chicago, with Te Waka Toi and colleagues from the Field Museum.



Dr Wayne Ngata

He uri nō ngā iwi o te Tairāwhiti, nō Te Āitanga ā Hauiti, nō Ngāti Ira, nō Ngāti Porou anō hoki. I takea mai anō i reira ōna katoa.  Heoi anō ko Ūawa te kāinga, ko Ūawa anō te awa, ko Tītīrangi te maunga.  Ka aua atu e ako ana, e tohe ana, e kawe ana i ngā tūāhuatanga hei whakapakari i ngā kaupapa Māori hei oranga mō te Māori, otirā mō Te Āitanga ā Hauiti tonu.  Nā reira i whāia atu ai te mātauranga hei ara mō te tinana, i aronui ai te ngākau ki ngā tikanga Māori hei tikitiki mō te māhunga, i pau ai te wairua ki ōna atua hei arataki anō i a ia, ka eke i runga i te kōrero, ‘Ko ngā pākura ēnei o Tokorākau, kāore e rongo i te hie’.



Wayne is from the Tairāwhiti with affiliations to Te Āitanga ā Hauiti, Ngāti Ira and Ngāti Porou. Raised in the Tairāwhiti, he resides in Ūawa (Tolaga Bay), and with others in the community, is an advocate for what Ūawa offers itself, the region, the country and the world.  He is an active supporter of education towards constructive and productive citizenship, particularly in te reo Māori. His particular area of scholarship is Māori literature, specifically the language of mōteatea (traditional chant). He is a long time supporter of the renaissance in local Māori art as a platform for tribal intellectual, social and economic development, and with other members of Te Āitanga ā Hauiti, have developed strong working and research relationships with regional, national and international institutions. He is a teacher, and helped establish Māori Studies at the Tairāwhiti Polytechnic (now EIT Tairāwhiti) in the last two decades. He has been a member of the Board of the Māori Language Commission and currently works in a managerial role for the Ministry of Education with a focus on te reo Māori in schools.



Dr Hēmi Whaanga (Ngāti Kahungunu, Ngāi Tahu, Ngāti Māmoe, Waitaha) is a research officer  in Te Pua Wānanga ki te Ao (The School of Māori and Pacific Development) at the University of  Waikato.  Hēmi  has been involved, in various capacities as a project leader,  writer and researcher, in a range of linguistic, indigenous Māori knowledge and curriculum projects. He has published in the areas of indigenous Māori knowledge, traditional ecological knowledge, language revitalisation, linguistics, language teaching and curriculum development.