Cyber-iwi put their culture online

By PETER SINCLAIR

By the end of this century, it is said, every New Zealander will carry at least a drop or two of Maori blood in his or her veins.

This is one of those intriguing statistics that has some of the elusiveness of the urban legend - you know you've heard it, but you can't quite say where.

Yet I hope it's true. It would be nice to think that, despite forces which seek to divide us, a gradual equity of blood will finally prevail, becoming both our heritage and our destiny as the last children of the great canoeists merge with the final generation of British horizon-chasers.

In researching this article I was struck by the extraordinary richness of the Maori contribution to the web, and fascinated by the impact of a global medium on a tribal culture. For the cyber-iwi are doing just fine in cyberspace.

Take Marie Hall, a teacher-aide at Finlayson Park School in Manurewa. Only two months ago, Marie was a net newbie. Attracted by the web's vast trove of information and its new affordability, this determined mother of three (Shaun, 15, Stacey, 13, and Sharntelle, 12) decided to head for the future and join the younger generation of Maori already online.

She took a computer course, opened an account with i4free and invested in a home computer.

Her first solo flight on the net took place at Yahoo. here, she typed a single word: "Maori."

Try it yourself. Like Marie, you will be rewarded with a rich and varied selection of links from Kimikupu Hou (a searchable database of new and technical Maori vocabulary) - to Maori.com, where you will be greeted by the haunting fragment of a waiata.

And Creative New Zealand is a good first stop if you want to get some sense of the diversity that enriches us and makes our culture unique.

Today, if not quite a power-user, Marie sails through cyberspace with confidence.

More importantly, she can help her daughters master the intricacies of searching in English (the girls, after experiencing the Te Huringa Rumaki Reo total-immersion unit at Finlayson, are now attending a bilingual school).

Shaun goes to James Cook High, which includes IT among its subjects. Like other pupils with their "internet licence" - obtained by passing tests in various computer skills - he can use one of the six computers in the school library for study and recreation.

But, like any red-blooded kid of any race, give him a choice and he would probably end up choosing DragonBall II over, say, Te Puni Kokiri, the Ministry of Maori Development.

Best of all, though, Marie is now able to take part in the online life of her whanau at the Te Hikutu website, quite beautifully crafted and containing evocative graphics of Whirinaki, her tribal home - for in an age of diaspora for so many peoples of the world, the net is an ideal way for dispersed e-Maori to keep in touch with each other.

Just as encouraging is the experience of Jim Perry, who has devoted a lifetime to Maori education, especially in rural areas.

A man of about my age, he radiates the same enthusiasm, the sense of boundless possibilities, that I feel about the internet.

Jim is headmaster of Te Raki Paewhenua, a kura kaupapa (Maori language school) on Auckland's North Shore (at this point, feel free to consult the wholly excellent two-way Maori/English dictionary posted by the University of Otago).

As well as that, he is on the board of trustees of St Stephen's School for Maori boys, which his son James, 15, attends. His twin daughters, Hinearangi and Jolene, 13, go to Queen Victoria, where they also study IT.

After its recent difficulties, St Stephen's is about to be reborn, and Jim says that when the board meets the Maori bishops next month, he and like-minded trustees such as Terry Rakuraku and Rangiora Te Mana will press for a very strong IT emphasis in the retargeted school - it does not even have a website at present.

Jim suggested several sites for me to visit, and I pass them on to you: a Quick Guide to the Treaty (if you have not read it already, by all means feel guilty); www.maori.org.nz for a wealth of Maori resources; and I especially recommend Julia's Page for its gentle insight, entirely free of the self-sabotaging mindset some have identified in Maori culture, into the Ratana Church.

Contrarians may prefer the more abrasive viewpoint of the separate-but-equalists at the Maori Independence site.

Don't miss the wonderful site at www.culture.co.nz either, with its Maori cookbook (pass the kangawai, someone), greenstone, and a moving tribute to the vanished Moriori among many other resources, including your own private, spam-free, Maori email account.

Buying or selling, you will find an excellent Maori business directory at http://maoribiz.co.nz, and there is a continuous lively discussion on things Maori at http://boardserver.mycomputer.com.

Or you can always do what Marie did - go to your favourite search-engine and just type 'Maori.'

Like me, you will be rewarded and impressed.

Links:

Yahoo

Kimikupu Hou

Maori.com

Creative New Zealand

DragonBall II

Te Puni Kokiri

Te Hikutu

Maori/English dictionary

Quick Guide to the Treaty

www.maori.org.nz

Ratana Church

Maori Independence

www.culture.co.nz

Waka Huia
Maori email

Maori business directory

Maori discussion