“Māori Maps is a gateway to the Māori world of marae. It aims to take visitors to the gateway of marae around Aotearoa/New Zealand; beyond that point, visitors can make their own interactions with the marae community. Māori Maps assembles information about all the traditional, tribal marae. It does not include marae that are non-tribal, belong to Urban Māori Authorities, adhere to educational and other institutions, or otherwise do not have a specific link to iwi, hapū or whānau.” [all text in quotation marks comes from www.maorimaps.com with permission]:
“Māori Maps helps to connect Māori descendants with their marae, and enable visitors to make appropriate contact with these centres of culture – in particular, linking Māori youth with their ancestral identity.
Marae are the centres of Māori identity and activity. Māori Maps provides a nationwide map of marae, with photos of each marae, contact and background information, and photographs. There are also restricted access areas that marae themselves can use to store their data and photos.
To date the site contains information for marae in the Tai Tokerau (Northland) and Tamaki (Auckland) regions. Work is continuing towards adding all of Aotearoa’s more than 800 ancestral marae by the year 2013.”
“Māori Maps recommends that anyone who wishes to go beyond kūwaha — to walk onto marae, be formally hosted or obtain deeper marae knowledge — should engage directly with the marae community and its elders.”
“Te Potiki National Trust, a charitable company founded in 2006 by Dr Paul Tapsell and Rereata Makiha, administers Māori Maps.
Paul is now Dean, Te Tumu School of Maori, Pacific & Indigenous Studies at the University of Otago; Rereata is a producer with Maori Television. Te Potiki’s three other directors are Dr Christine Woods (senior lecturer in the Faculty of Business & Economics at the University of Auckland), Moka Apiti (mapping facilitator, Crown Forestry Rental Trust), and Peter Dowling (managing director, Oratia Media); Peter acts as the trust’s kaihautu.
An advisory board led by the late Sir Paul Reeves, former governor-general of New Zealand, guided the establishment of Te Potiki National Trust. Renata Tane acts as kaumatua during field research. Krzysztof Pfeiffer, an internationally renowned photographer, is responsible for photography of marae.
The production of the site is overseen by digital and multimedia producer, Michael Hennessy. Design and programming of the website is by Zest Media, Auckland.
All text in this post is from the Maori Maps website: www.maorimaps.com.
It is copyright © 2011 Te Potiki National Trust Limited and is used on this site with permission.
