October GOALS

Received some very good news today - unexpected good news that will help me progress towards my October GOALS!!

1. I found the GIS software - from the Surveying Department
2. Ngarangi answered my email requesting some time with him to develop a Cultural Mapping Series!!
3. My mate Quenten from Melbourne gave me the heads up about the possibility of developing software for Indigenous GIS!!
4. Met with Boua yesterday who talked to me about the rich heritage they have embedded in the cultural landscape. He spoke of the myriad of unique sounds that clothe the landscape & reflects the uniqueness of their language!!
   

Now all i need to do is:

1. organise a meeting with Huia for some in-house Indigenous GIS training
   
2. & organise a meeting with CFRT regarding the possibility of participating in a cultural mapping project

Nice
H24

kei te kimi noa!

Brother, i need some assistance and guidance for part of my PhD - this particular part is to do with Converting an Oral Tradition into a Spatial Tradition. In essence, i want to look at the components that make up moteatea and convert those components into spatial assets, thus providing me with a means of being able to represent that information onto a map/GIS! This will then allow me to see how the ancestral landscape was clothed using moteatea! I will then develop a series of MAPS - CULTURAL MAPS.

This part is the actual ngako of the entire thesis!

I will look towards creating a TEMPLATE for developing a series of LAYERS that will make up a series of CULTURAL MAPS:- as part of the Maps i will need to:

1. Develop or design a set of unique cultural icons, symbols or lines & shapes to represent these components
2. Look at ways of representing boundaries of "culturally significant areas" - [perhaps unique shapes, polygons]
   
3. Identify the significant layers of information & develop templates for each layer
4. Design a map legend that is appropriate to the information
   
5. Create a series of 'map biographies' that represent the korero in the moteatea
   
6. Find a way to represent/store the metaphors used in moteatea
7. Design a Map that appropriately represents the oral traditions that clothed the ancestral landscape
   

Naaku noa
H24

Mauheretia au ki te whenua!!

E aku rangatira, koutou e noho tonu nei ki runga i te whenua o to koutou tipuna!!

Kei te whiwhia mai au
Kei te rapa mai au
Kei te kimi mai au
ki te ara tauwhaiti, ki te ara kei waho
hei putanga ariki ki te whai ao ki te ao marama
tuturu, kia ruku, rurukutia
hei mauheretia au ki te whenua ki te mauri

mauri tu!

Addition to my PLAN

• I am going to track down my good mate Ngarangi and have a 2 or 3 day wananga with him about "how moteatea shapes & informs the ancestral landscape!!" In essence, create a Cultural Map based on the oral traditions contained within moteatea
  

• Look at specific examples of moteatea & create a database of cultural information
  

• Create Cultural icons, symbols, lines & so on to represent that information

• Create a Cultural Map

Ka tika

H24

Leap off the EDGE!

Mauri ora ki a koutou katoa!

I had a hui (meeting) with Steph Rotarangi this morning from 10-11:15am odd to discuss some aspects of her PhD - you remember her from a couple of posts ago --- anyway, i bumped into one of her supervisors last week on Monday who suggested (with some insistence from Lorraine) that i become her (Steph's) cultural supervisor - loosely of course

So, we sat and had a korero (talk)with our bottles of water. Just to regurgitate: the idea is to get her ready to leap off the edge:- it was Ray Bradbury that said -

"First you jump
& you build your wings
on the way down"

• Start a BLOG - create a profile for you - one which we can get out to the community
• Your supervisors can check in on your progress whilst they are in the field
• I can pop in and check up on you (i will subscribe to your blog)
• You can get your "profile" out to the community
  
• Your First Post: should cover you & your family & perhaps your journey to the point where you took a leap into the abyss known as the PhD
• Your Second Post: Your background, your CV, your professional development, your academic journey
  
• Your Third Post: Talk about why you are doing your PhD - the korero you & i had this morning about how the timing & circumstances just fell into place for you -
  
• look at your proposal - & the burning questions that urged you towards applying for a PhD (take a look at your proposal for FoRST)
  

• Your Fourth Post: how about some background to your thoughts on the Forestry industry? Lets develop your thinking around a framework?
  

• Then we can take it from there - but lets find your voice & develop that so that our people get a sense of who you are as a person first, before they get an idea of who your are as an academic

Apart from that:

• Go for a hikoi across Tongariro with your whanau
  
• Pick yourself up a rock and bring it home for you
• Get yourself a Rewana bug
• learn to keep it alive during the duration of you PhD
• Get yourself a Native Tree and look after it

ps: i will get an email off to Tia

Hei kona
H24

FORWARD PLANNING for the next QUARTER!

First things FIRST

• I need to arrange for some deferral - still waiting for a reply from Graeme
• Set out my COMPLETION STRATEGY for previous chapters
• Set in place my plan for the next QUARTER
  

OCTOBER 2008: Focus on preparation for Cultural Mapping Model

o Meet with researchers regarding a mapping project

o Discuss the overall plan of approach

o Set milestones in place

o Set Out research & mapping schedule

o Meet with GIS consultants for mapping training [ARC-GIS]

o Develop cultural icons, symbol, and shapes to represent each layer of information

o Determine layer information & representation

o Discuss how to link with base-maps

o Determine best practice skills & procedures

o Develop the framework for a Cultural Practice Guideline

o Discuss presentation of Cultural Information

o Acquire GIS Software [see Department]

November 2008: Develop Cultural Mapping Series & Appropriate Guidelines

o Draw up a Cultural Map Series illustrating Cultural Assets

o Develop Cultural Icons for illustrating Cultural Assets

o Develop “Cultural Base-Maps” at appropriate scales

§ Layers of Cultural Information

§ Examples of how to represent information

o Write up Cultural Mapping Guideline – “how to” - Map Cultural Assets

o Compile Report detailing Procedures for Best Practice (see Chief Kerry Moose)

o This is the “how to” – Research Approach

Write up CHAPTER on CULTURAL MAPPING

December 2008: Focus on Completing Previous Chapters
Still thinking about what this looks like but...

• Set aside 20% of my time during the quarter to focus on completion strategy for previous chapters
• Allocate 80% of time during the first two months to completing the Cultural Mapping Chapter & Model based on the Case Study
• Complete planning and post here

Naaku noa

H24

Me nekeneke, me nukunuku

A couple of things i want to share:

I just received an email from Huia who is a cartographer with a local firm - she uses Arc-GIS as part of her tools and skill sets. She has just invited me up to have a look at what she does, and how she does it - the skills that set her apart are the fact that she is Maori & is interested in Maori Cartography and the whole gamut & range of knowledge that is part and parcel of her world view.

Second: Otago University was host to an interesting young lady from Alaska, a FullBright Scholar, PhD Student, who is in New Zealand at Auckland University for a year. I went to her seminar on Monday afternoon - great talk on Worldview and how it informs & influences our approaches to applying Indigenous ways of being and what that means in our areas of interests. She also gave me a book by Oscar Kawagley - Yupiaq Worldviews




# so, my plan will be to head up to see Huia and get some tips to help me with my Cultural Mapping section of my PhD
# Browse through the book that Malia gave me - Yupiaq Worldview by Oscar Kawagley

Naaku noa
H24

- - B A C K on T R A C K - -

Teenei taaku ki a koutou - nga mihi!!

I have been feeling a little bit 'lost' or rather 'distracted' - my father had an AORTIC BYPASS about 6 odd weeks ago. My family gathered at Waikato Hospital whilst he was in Intensive Care (ICU) (about 3 weeks) and took turns watching over him until he was released into the vascular ward (about 1 week). From there he went down to Rotorua for about a week then to Taupo where he is currently.

He is doing well or rather - he is doing much better!!

My mind has been on family matters since the end of July!!

However, i am back in Dunedin and looking to get myself back on TRACK with the PhD!!

First things first:
@ review my overall plan for the balance of the year
@ Focus on completing 3-4 chapters (say 80%) for my supervisor to look at by the end of the year
@ Get a copy of ARC-GIS and look at drawing up some 'cultural maps' which reflect aspects of moteatea
@ Set the framework in place for the Case Study: Cultural Mapping

This will cover the last quarter for the year!!

In Addition:
# Look at an income for this period of time & into the new year
# Set out my goals for the first semester of 2009
# Complete and hand-in my PhD by end of first semester 2009

Mauri ora, mauri tipu
H24