Library Life Articles

New Ways of Talking: Māori and Technology

Posted by Sally on

Next year, Te Rōpū Whakahau will be celebrating their 20th anniversary at their  hui-ā-tau (annual conference) in January at Waipapa Marae.

Tosca Waerea and I will be facilitating an afternoon session with three absolutely outstanding speakers. Here are the details:

New ways of talking: Māori and Technology
Mike McRoberts of TV3, Chris Cormack of Catalyst IT and Rhonda Kite of Kiwi Media will share their stories on new ways of talking and what it means for Māori.

Each speaker will then be followed by a workshop where participants will discuss:

  • how to apply what they’ve heard back in their own organisation;
  • how to make it relevant to their own position; and
  • how to relate it back to the Body of Knowledge

And if that hasn’t piqued your curiosity I’m sure Chris Cormack’s abstract will:

He iti te toki he rite ki te tangata
(A small axe can do as much work as a person)
 
Māori have always been quick to adapt to new tools, and to use them to their advantage. Hongi Hika voyaged to England, then on his way back to Aotearoa stopped at Australia to trade the gifts from King George IV for muskets and ammunition. Maui Pomare travelled to the USA to get his medical degree which he then used to great effect back home.
 
Nowadays, with the advent of the internet, we no longer need to travel to have access to people and knowledge in other places. Despite timezones and  language barriers, ideas can flow across national and cultural boundaries.
 
How can we tap into this resource, and use it to benefit us, our whanaunga, hapu and iwi?
 
In this brief talk I will use my experience interacting with the international community involved in the Koha project, to hopefully provide some talking points, and maybe spark some ideas also.

So if you are Māori, or know someone who is, working in the GLAM sector, register now, we’d love to see you there. 🙂

A version of this article appeared in Library Life: Te Rau Ora, 8 December 2011.

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