PhD Draft Update

June 1: seminal day - i handed in my PhD Draft to my primary supervisor!!

Title: The Paepae: spatial technologies and the geography of narratives.

Chapter 1: Taku Tapuwae
Chapter 2: Translating an oral tradition into a spatial tradition
Chapter 3: Indigenous Sense of Place
Chapter 4: Cultural Mapping: tools for interpreting the world
Chapter 5: Interpreting the Maori world using maps
Chapter 6: Cultural Mapping: Preserve what you value
Chapter 7: Mapping the mana of the land
Chapter 8: Hokai nuku: Leap forward

ABSTRACT:
Indigenous peoples around the world face similar challenges pertaining to their ancestral territories in planning, protection, policy, and advocacy. For Māori, of Aotearoa New Zealand, issues related to mana whenua, mana moana, demarcation and the protection of ancestral boundaries and associated cultural assets often require the creation of maps as proof of use and existence of tribal cultural footprints. Conceding this, GIS mapping technologies offers a unique suite of tools that can assist Indigenous peoples including Māori to demarcate their ancestral territories, tell their stories, map their biographies, protect their land and articulate their mana whenua and mana moana.

GIS technology has gained a world-wide reputation for its ability to manage and manipulate large amounts of geographical or spatially organised information. This technology has enormous implications and application for Indigenous peoples around the world looking at managing their own cultural information.

Indigenous cultures, including Māori, throughout the world are exploring the potential that GIS technology and techniques offers in managing and mapping their ancestral landscapes based on their unique view of their part of the world.


Indigenous peoples are traditionally oral based societies wherein their knowledge base was maintained and passed on using oral narratives such as songs, genealogies, chants, theatre and storytelling. Oral narratives such as mōteatea, karakia, tauparapara, and whakapapa and kōrero pūrākau unique to Māori were used to store their notions of the world and to pass that knowledge forward to each successive generation. Embedded in these oral narratives were their notions of place which informed their concept of a cultural landscape; a landscape informed by narratives; the geography of narratives.

The primary purpose of this thesis is to examine the potential for blending GIS technology with oral narratives without compromising the integrity or changing the nature of that landscape and culture that informs it or without those oral narratives losing any its cultural integrity or mana.