Cyber Connections

The Internet is changing the way Ngāi Tahu communicate. Whānau separated by time and distance are logging on to keep the kōrero, whakapapa and kinship alive. Nā Lee Suckling.

www.bebo.com/arahura

Kanohi-ki-te-kanohi – face-to-face – has always been the way Māori prefer to communicate, but what happens when the whānau and iwi are spread around the country and all over the world?

Enter the Internet, which gives anyone the ability to write and make their personal opinions public.

From there it was just a matter of time until Ngāi Tahu whānau, separated by distance, joined forces to create their own kind of kanohi-ki-te-kanohi communication.

Online social networking means Ngāi Tahu can connect with each other at any time from anywhere in the world. Websites such as Bebo and Facebook are becoming an increasingly popular way to connect – and stay connected – with whānau and hapū.

Arahura Pā (Ngāti Waewae), which is at www.bebo.com/arahura, has one of the strongest hapū presences on the internet, with almost a dozen active group pages.

Michelle Lee (Kāti Waewae) has co-ordinated the expansive site since she set up the first page two years ago. "In today's world, our hapū are no longer all living within a physical community, however virtual communication is making it increasingly easy to connect to each other.

"It bypasses the financial and geographical constraints that often affect our ability to get together."

Bebo is the preferred social networking site for teenagers and young adults (13 to 25 years old), probably because it gives them the ability to customise their pages. There is no preferred format, and everything on a page can be changed to suit the user and the way they want to represent themselves in the online world.

Lee chose Bebo ahead of other social networking sites because it gave her more scope to to reflect the hapū's personality. "When I was setting up the first Arahura Pā online group, I found that indigenous groups often head to Bebo because they want to visually represent their culture.

"Facebook has a very clinical feel to it because you can't change the way the pages look, but Bebo gives people the ability to manipulate the aesthetic of each page to reflect who they are. Being able to change our backgrounds so they express our personality as a group is important – it helps keep people interested in using the pages because they are visually relevant to them."

The online community has become so important to the hapū that Michelle is working on New Zealand's first full-scale "Virtual Pā", a social networking website of its own for the Arahura Pā community.

The Arahura Pā Bebo page provides a forum for a range of messages and information. Members of their Bebo groups often post comments that encourage community pride.

Using "shout-outs" and inspirational quotes, whānau share their passion for their hapū. And what appears varies from historical proverbs in te reo to more personal messages written with a kind of "street flavour", such as "Luff 2 every 1 dwn thoz wayz". Bebo is used to connect with whānau: "I'm from down the Pā in Arahura, but live in Auckland. If you are a cuzzy and you wanna holla at me or leave a comment that cool!"

Photo and video sharing is another key component of how Ngāi Tahu communities such as Arahura Pā are using online social networking, encouraged by comments such as "Come on whānau, start uploading your stuff so your nosey whanaunga can see what you're up to".

Group members can upload the achievements of their whānau onto their hapū's Bebo pages, and stream their accomplishments on the sporting field, in education and entertainment.

The Arahura Pā Bebo pages have many hapū videos, ranging from rugby tries to whitebaiting to searching for pounamu on West Coast rivers.

"Our videos give access at any time to those who can't physically be there, for reasons such as age, health, and distance," says Lee.

While Bebo is primarily used by rangatahi, rival online social network Facebook is a tool all ages use to connect to each other. It is commonly used for reunion purposes by marae groups.

Arowhenua (Pa-Road Marae, Temuka) and Ōtākou Marae are two pages which have been set up so whānau can reconnect with each other.

"We need to hold some family reunions," says group creator Tui-Shalimar Maher on the Arowhenua page. "We are having our own children now and need to have reunions to ensure our families stay close."

Facebook is used to post updates about where whānau are and what they are up to. Mawera Karetai, administrator of the Ōtākou Marae page, asks her whānau to post items, news, and events, and to start discussions. Members respond with comments such as "I live around the corner from the marae. I grew up in Kaikōura, went to school there, travelled and lived in Melbourne for many years, but returned home last year. It's great to be back."

Similarly, Ngāi Tahu use Facebook to post stories from overseas. "I live in Perth, Australia and I'd like to make an announcement that I am now the proud grandmother of a little girl, 11 hours old ..."

Kapa haka and other cultural group pages are also popular on Facebook, such as the Te Ngāi Tūāhuriri Tūturu page, which was set up to post kapa haka news and competition locations so whānau can come along. Videos and results are later uploaded so anyone can watch remotely and encourage the team with comments. An off-shoot from this page is the Ngāi Tūāhuriri kapa haka's blog (http://ngaitahu2toronto.blog.com), which will consist of regular updates of the kapa's upcoming trip to Canada.

Less mainstream networking websites such as MyFamily.com are also used for family reunion and updating purposes.

The private whānau site for descendants of Apa Ngaio Pitangi Crofts was set up in Brisbane and is used by family all over the world. Regular user Joseph Hullen says the website serves many purposes.

"It is a forum to catch up with whānau, a calendar for notable events, an online photo album and a conduit for information, from the flax roots to the many branches of our family tree."

Some Ngāi Tahu are even creating their own whānau websites, complete with whakapapa, pakiwaitara (traditional stories) and pānui (notices).

Kāti Huirapa Rūnaka ki Puketeraki (www.puketeraki.co.nz) focuses on teaching whānau about their history, and informing them about the current environmental and educational efforts of the Puketeraki hapū.

The Barrett Whānau's website 5CrossRoads (www.5crossroads.com) is even more extensive. It has a detailed family tree, an expansive family history, audio downloads of family members talking about their upbringing, and an online hui section where they can share stories, recipes and even jokes.

"We're all over the world, we're a global whānau," say Tim Reriri, 5CrossRoad's founder.

"We live in such a fast-paced world and we're not in touch with our whānau like we used to be.

"The only time a family gets together properly today is at a tangihanga, which is sad. Internet communities give all Ngāi Tahu the opportunity to connect to each other 24/7, no matter where we are."

Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu has taken a slow, cautious approach to social networking.

Communications manager Phil Tumataroa says the chief priority is to protect the privacy of the Ngāi Tahu whānui and their information.

This attitude is supported by the UK internet Users association, which says managing privacy and access to personal information is the number one concern of users.

"We have naturally been conservative in our approach to social networking via the internet," says Tumataroa, "and it has probably saved Te Rūnanga from the mistakes of totally open access and giving up privacy of information and intellectual property of artwork and taonga, which others have placed in the public domain on these internationally controlled sites.

"We will be moving toward a whānau-controlled social networking space but moving there cautiously and protecting the intellectual and family property of Ngāi Tahu whānui."

That space is CommunityNet. It is a whānau-only password-protected portal that allows rūnanga to set the rules on how content is managed and accessed on their websites, and provides a secure environment for information such as the administration of schemes such as Whai Rawa.

Building the CommunityNet portal is Te Rūnanga's web officer Simon Leslie.

He has also been charged with rebuilding the iwi's main website www.ngaitahu.iwi.nz, which is being relaunched in July.

Leslie collaborated with Ngāi Tahu artist Ross Hemera, the Ngāi Tahu Māori Rock Art Trust, and Te Rūnanga o Arowhenua to achieve the new look of the website.

"I hope the aesthetics of the site convey the concept of an eternal thread of the past, present and future," says Leslie. "The rock art is an artefact of the first inhabitants of Te Waipounamu. The image is reflected in Ross' work and mirrored in the kapa haka photograph of the next generation."

"I wanted to create a point of convergence for all Ngāi Tahu by a content rich, easy-to-navigate site. The goal is to create a hub so if a Ngāi Tahu person is looking for something, a job, an event to attend or a scholarship, they will check out our site first."

To promote the site, Leslie is generating content and befriending whānau on Facebook (www.facebook.com/ngai.tahu).

"I hope whānau join the conversation. You can renovate your house as much as you like but if nobody comes to visit there isn't much point."

In the past few years, a series of politically-charged blogs pertaining to Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu have emerged online, giving Ngāi Tahu and others a forum to vent their uncensored views to the public in a way that's not possible with traditional media.

Richard Parata, former director of Ngāi Tahu Holdings Corporation, now runs the blog Ngāi Tahu Shareholders (www.ngaitahushareholders.co.nz). Parata says he writes a blog because he wants to see better accountability and democracy in the tribe. He says he was unable to speak openly about his concerns when he was a Te Rūnanga director.

Blogging differs because readers have a chance to comment on what is said. "It creates a dialogue, a two-way conversation, whatever the views are," adds Parata. "It's debate, and that is healthy. Blogging gives Ngāi Tahu the facility to break that barrier where we feel we can't speak up."

Because commenting on a blog can be anonymous, it gives both the blogger and the reader the opportunity to voice their opinion in a non-confrontational environment.

"Commenters are able to express their opinions with the confidence that their view will be respected," says Parata.

He says many Ngāi Tahu who have not been bought up near their marae have a real fear of being told off in front of others when they come on to a marae "because they have said the wrong thing or sat when they should have stood. They would prefer to not visit, rather than risk being told off."

Tina Nixon, whose now-defunct blog received 140,000 visitors during its eight-month run, was named leading female blogger in New Zealand by Tūmeke this year.

A Rakiura Māori descendant, Tina is an outspoken critic of Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu and is unashamedly right-of-centre in her political views. The former Southland Times senior journalist ran for the National Party nomination for Invercargill in the 2005 election.

Nixon started the blog Roarprawn because she felt that Ngāi Tahu needed an alternative source of information about political issues to what they could find throughout the mainstream media.

"The blog provided a balanced look at the other side, an alternative view," she says. "It gave them (iwi members) more information because unless they link into a marae, they rely on TE KARAKA and the monthly round-up of rūnaka stuff."

Similarly, Anthony Marsh blogs as Marty Mars (www.mars2earth.blogspot.com) to open up communication on TRoNT issues to all tribe members, not just those actively involved in decision making.

The former Whai Rawa employee is passionate about encouraging Ngāi Tahu to increase their social and economic independence, and he has a strong grasp of TRoNT from an insider's perspective.

"If Ngāi Tahu members just read the newspapers or watch the news, we will never get quality information," Marsh says. "I believe that there are an abundance of good ideas out there among Ngāi Tahu whānui, and I want to create pathways for that knowledge to be shared, discussed and built upon.

"All Ngāi Tahu can add value by expressing their views. Traditionally the paepae is the place for this kanohi-ki-te-kanohi, but now we can use other forms of communication to supplement and work in cooperation with our traditional forms."

www.ngaitahu.iwi.nz

All forms of Ngāi Tahu Internet communication are a way of giving connections back to the tribe in a new way. "It makes people think and gives them a new voice," says Nixon.

"Online communities are not in competition to physical iwi communication, they compliment it, making it easier and more frequent," adds Lee.

Marsh, too, is fond of Ngāi Tahu Internet communities because they give him the chance to articulate another perspective, and because they give all tribe members a way to have their individual voices heard.

"We have a great mass of iwi members who are being ignored and forgotten. I want to help create pathways for them to be involved. Any increase in communication between Ngāi Tahu whānui is a good thing in my book.

"We need all members of this iwi to be paddling the waka in unison. We need all Ngāi Tahu whānui to be working together as much as we can," he says. "Mā te kotahitanga e kaha ai tātou – in unity we have strength."