This Spearhead project emerged from a Science for Technological Innovation (SfTI) workshop, where Te Whānau-ā-Apanui tribal leader Rikirangi Gage posed an intriguing question:
“What if in 200-300 years’ time I was able to be a hologram and my mokopuna could sit there and talk to me and I could explain, for example, how the Star Compass worked. Wouldn’t that be awesome!”
That vision motivated University of Waikato Associate Professor Dr. Hēmi Whaanga to develop the concept of Ātea, a digital space that uses new technologies and novel approaches to enable Māori to interactively engage with their language, culture and knowledge. The multidisciplinary project team aims to design an immersive experience for future generations, addressing the Vision Mātauranga goals of the SfTI Challenge, to connect dispersed Māori communities.
Pei Te Hurinui Jones, 1898-1976, was an outstanding figure in New Zealand - from his editorial work compiling and translating the songs of Maori tribes in Nga Moteatea, to founding one of the first New Zealand owned and operated million dollar companies, to being the President of the Maori Council and advisor to King Koriki and the Maori Queen, Dame Te Atairangikaahu. If you've read (or watched) any of Shakespeare's plays in Maori, then you've experienced some of the work of Pei Jones.
In conjunction with staff from the School of Maori and Pacific Development, our library staff have worked tirelessly to gather scholarly material and artefacts relating to his academic life, made available as a special collection and housed in its own room on the top floor of the recently re-developed library building. Over the last 5 years, work has been undertaken to digitize these items and develop a digital library which you are now visiting.