(From left) Tama Kirikiri (Tātai Angitu e3@Massey’s Kaihautū Mātauranga Māori); Kaituhi/author Pere Durie; Vincent Egan of Māui Studios Aotearoa and Hori Mataki of Ariki Creative at Te Rangimārie marae, Rangiotū, where the Te Aho Ngārahu project was launched.
Tini whetū ki te rangi, ko ngā uri o Rangitāne ki te whenua. (Just as there are many multitudes of stars in the sky, so too are the descendants of Rangitāne upon the land).
Augmented reality, graphic artistry and creative writing are being deployed to develop cutting edge resources for Māori medium schools, featuring indigenous stories from the Manawatū region.
A joint project between Massey University's educational professional development team Tātai Angitu e3@Massey and Rangitane descendant Pere Durie will bring to life stories of significant places in the Manawatū.
Tātai Angitu project manager Tama Kirikiri says the project will use a contemporary graphic novel format integrated with augmented reality (AR).
“Tātai Angitu was successful in securing funding from the newly launched Ministry of Education Te Aho Ngārahu fund,” Mr Kirikiri says. “The purpose of this fund is to create resources for Māori medium kura. Stories and ideas for resources were chosen from a nationwide process, which was open to everyone from across our communities to share and use as the basis of creating learning and teaching resources.
“We’re thrilled to be working with Tauranga Boys High School teacher Pere Durie – who was born and bred in the Manawatū – to realise his vision.”
Participants in the project, launched at Te Rangimārie marae at Rangiotu on April 17, will work with Christchurch-based graphic designers Vincent Egan, of Māui Studios Aotearoa, and Hori Mataki, from Ariki Creative. Mr Kirikiri says these artists were chosen as they create “breath-taking mahi driven from a strong kaupapa and tikanga Māori foundation.”
The full project team also includes the head of Massey’s Te Pūtahi-a-Toi (School of Māori Knowledge) Professor Meihana Durie, and Pūkenga Matua Hone Morris, who will ensure that the quality of the te reo Māori and the Rangitāne mita (dialect) is consistent throughout. The team also features leading volcanologists Jonathan Procter and Stuart Mead, who will bring their expertise in Geographic Information Systems (GIS) mapping to create what will be the first resource of its kind for both Māori and English medium kura.
Tātai Angitu e3@Massey (for ‘education, efficacy, enterprise’) is a professional learning development team based in the Institute of Education which connects Massey’s academic talent with community and educational organisations in New Zealand and the Pacific.