Tag: BFA

Week #3: Mana Tangata

Discussion on Kumera

Nutritious, can grow easily in NZ, can store very easily. Not sure what relevance this has to whakapapa.

Some traditional Polynesian plants wouldn’t thrive in NZ.

Lots of varieties of Kumera, so there’s probably one that fits in somewhere. However, there were maybe 80 varieties, but only three left.

We have selectively decreased Kumera genetic diversity, potentially to select disease resistance, reduce competitive plants, make it easier to have large scale production, consumerization, etc.

Some efforts made late in the day to increase diversity.

“How the Gok’s saved the Kumera”.

Seed stock of Kumera given away to the Japanese by the government.

Whakapapa again as a way of showing people how to live life according to traditional values.

GMO

So the difference is speed? We hybridize things all of the time.

This is not to say that we should not pursue GMO; the issues seem to be around the cross-breeding of species.

Is it OK to apply GMO to things without a whakapapa.

Wonder how agapanthus fits into this

Michael Parekowhai, The Lighthouse, 2017, installation

The Lighthouse is an artwork by Michael Parekowhai. Its exterior is in the form of a 1:1 scale 1950s family home and its interior features an installation of light as well as a sculpture of Captain Cook, titled The English Channel. It is surrounded by a wooden jetty that “floats” on Queens Wharf. The public can explore the work by looking through its windows and doors and by climbing the staircase.

The Lighthouse is the house that holds the whole universe as we know it. The interior finish is highly reflective and features clusters of neon lights that represent the star constellations which illuminate around all of the surfaces. The combination of light and the form of the fireplace implies the notion of ahi kā; that home fires are burning and the house is warm with people.

The presence of The English Channel, sitting among the stars, grounds the work. This version of Captain Cook is not the heroic figure that we often see; instead he’s more pensive and thoughtful. He faces toward the fire, as if he’s warming his feet, but his gaze and mind are elsewhere.

The Lighthouse can be viewed from Queens Wharf or from the sea on the Waiheke or Devonport ferries. The artwork is part of Auckland Council’s public art collection, and was funded by Barfoot & Thompson and anonymous donors.

The Lisa Reihana piece

in Pursuit of Venus, the panoramic video by Lisa Reihana, is a moving image interpretation of the French scenic wallpaper Les Sauvages de la Mer Pacifique.

http://www.inpursuitofvenus.com/about

Done as a riff on old wallpaper:

Connections to transit of Venus.

Colonizers view on Aotearoa and Pacific peoples.

The Assignment

Continuing to consider the Doctrine of Discovery, and how to represent this through an art work.

Week #2: Mana Whenua

Group work

What my table group learnt from reading “Introduction to the Oxford Illustrated History of Science”:

1. Science has become disconnected from culture.
2. Science explains physical and spiritual things.
3. Science explains models and the different ways of explaining models.
4. Science is always adapting.
5. Science sums up the way in which we make sense of the world around us.
6. Science is a uniquely human activity.
7. Most of what we know now will become false in the future.

Huhana Smith interview

(Video on Youtube but unlisted)

• Rehabilitating the stream using matauranga Maori approach.
• Harakeke (NZ Flax) Indigenous plant.
• Doing this to keep contact between community and land.
• Creating “pa harakeke”.
• Harvest the harakeke and use if for making things, e.g. fibres for cloth, etc.
• Harakeke also has medicinal uses.
• Getting artists and artisans involved in responding to the project.
• Pushing the design aspects of the task through Massey, e.g. textile engineers, designers, etc.

Week #1: Mana Atua and Knowledge Systems

Introductions

There are about 50 people in this course this semester, which felt like more than the first semester’s 237.130 module. The tutors started out the session by doing an introductory exercise to get us on our feet and energised, which worked pretty well. I started out meeting the group of people who were not born in New Zealand, and then met the people in the group who are, like me, on the BFA course. There are about 8 of us, with the other students being on one of the design courses.

The main part of the session started with us watching the “Tātai Arorangi” episode of Project Mātauranga.

Project Mātauranga is a television series that investigates Māori world views and methodologies within the scientific community and looks at their practical application… This episode looks at tātai arorangi (astronomical knowledge), used to navigate the ocean, plant crops, harvest kaimoana, and to tell the time

Pokapū Akoranga Pūtaiao

This particular episode focussed on Māori astronomy, including connections to non-Māori astronomy.

What I picked up from the episode:

• I need to find some Māori astronomy references.
• Origin stories vary from Iwi to Iwi, so need to take care and not make sweeping statements like, “Māori believe …”
• How were Māori astronomy stories translated by Pākehā into Western/mainstream concepts?
• How do the researchers identify original sources?
• What constitutes “raw information”?
• Interesting: mainstream versus indigenous as comparative terms.
• Is science not indigenous to India, England, France, whatever?
• Not all Māori knowledge is for everyone – need to re-read the 237.130 article.

Digression on comparative terms

One of the speakers in the video used indigenous and mainstream to differentiate between the Māori and non-Māori world views. As noted above, indigenous is (to me) not a useful way of differentiating between the two, because one could argue that everything is invented somewhere, so we may as well say that the Theory of Gravity is indigenous to England. In my writing, if it’s necessary to differentiate, I will therefore use the following:

• Traditional Māori …
• Mainstream …
• I’m not proposing to tag science as anything when referring to the universal subject. Science is not Western science or Eastern science or British science; it’s just “science”.
• Where there is a need to differentiate between mainstream and fringe science, for example parapsychology versus chemistry, I will write “fringe science” and “mainstream science” respectively.

Class exercise

We split into small groups to discuss a few questions posed by the tutors on the video.

What did we learn that’s new?

None of us had heard of S.M.A.R.T, the Society Of Māori Astronomy Research & Traditions:

https://www.maoriastronomy.co.nz/

What did we already know?

Most of the information about traditional Polynesian navigation techniques – my group had come across this either at school through other sources.

I had seen information on this topic at the New Zealand Maritime Museum in Auckland:

https://www.maritimemuseum.co.nz/exhibitions/landfalls

What kind of creative work could we make to help explore this?

• An interactive experience?
• Game-ify the traditional Māori navigation process?
• Create an artwork that shows how the night sky would appear, and how points in the sky could aid navigation?