Jolene Barletta Rangihaeata (Ngāti Porou, Ngāti Konohi, Ngāti Ruanui, Ngā Rauru, Ngāti Ruahine, Ngāti Toa Rangatira, Ngāti Hikairo, Ngāti Apa), University of Waikato.
Climate change poses profound environmental and cultural challenges for Indigenous peoples across Te Moana-nui-a-Kiwa, including Māori communities in Aotearoa. Despite minimal contributions to global emissions, Māori are among the first to face rising seas, biodiversity loss, and extreme weather events that threaten marae, urupā and ancestral lands. In Tairāwhiti, Cyclone Gabrielle (2023) caused rivers to exceed record levels, altering the land and ultimately displacing whānau.
Grounded in Kaupapa Māori theory, this research explores digital guardianship as a framework for resilience, centring Ngāti Konohi epistemologies and Indigenous data sovereignty. It investigates how digital technologies—guided by tikanga, whakapapa and ancestral narratives—can serve as tools of kaitiakitanga to protect and activate Māori knowledge amid climate change. Focusing on Whāngārā Marae in Tairāwhiti, the study seeks to advance Indigenous-led approaches to digital resilience, climate adaptation, and ethical technological transformation.
Ngāti Konohi possesses rich cultural knowledge, traditions, and histories, much of which is preserved through oral transmission, artefacts, whenua, pūrākau, tukutuku (weaving panels), and whakairo (carvings). As these forms of knowledge become digitised, there is both opportunity and risk: digital media can preserve and share, but also misrepresent, misuse, or lose context.
This research asks: How can a framework of digital guardianship be developed so that Ngāti Konohi can protect, manage, and transmit their cultural knowledge in digital forms in ways consistent with tikanga?
Aims & Objectives:
- Co-design with Ngāti Konohi elders and knowledge holders a culturally grounded guardianship framework that sets out principles and protocols for the digital collection, storage, access, and sharing of knowledge.
- Identify and map existing digital practices and technologies (what’s being used now, what works, what gaps are present).
- Develop tools (guidelines, governance structures, possibly digital platforms) to support the safe and respectful transmission of knowledge to current and future generations.
- Ensure that management remains with Ngāti Konohi, safeguarding authenticity, cultural integrity, and respect.
Why it matters:
- It helps protect against loss, distortion, or appropriation of cultural knowledge.
- It supports intergenerational learning and identity.
- It provides a model for other iwi/hapu wanting to digitise and share their own knowledge responsibly.