Zealandia

Zitat: Digital Taonga

“For people in Hauiti, the taonga-ness of an object, digital or otherwise, is determined by the quality of its relationships, so that something that to one person might appear as ‘just an artefact’ could be a taonga [cultural treasure] to someone who knows and/or is part of its history and kinship networks… Any artefact is a potential taonga, in the sense that it can be woven into the fabric of Hauiti whakapapa knowledge, and any artefact creatively generated out of these relationships can be a taonga, no matter what its form. This includes digital objects: a hologram of the ancestral house Te Kani a Takirau is as much a taonga to people who know and/or are related to this ancestor and his or her history as the carved wooden panels from which it was made, that are now scattered among museums in New Zealand, the US and Europe. Reassembling these taonga digitally is therefore just as important – if not more so – as bringing them physically together.”

Wayne Ngata, Hera Ngata-Gibson, Amiria Salmond: ‘Te Ataakura: Digital Taonga and Cultural Innovation.’ Journal of Material Culture 17 (3): p. 242, doi:10.1177/1359183512453807.

Posted by GS, 19. Jan 2019
Property Amiria Salmond Female Hera Ngata-Gibson Male New Zealand Wayne Ngata Zealandia