coming alive

Good news that the Takiroa Māori Rock Art Site will reopen soon. Heavy rains had made the area unsafe and remedial work is being done to upgrade the paths and viewing points. This will open up the taonga to visitors - which is important - these taonga are an essential part of our shared history and by learning from Ngāi Tahu the context around them, we honour our tupuna, Ngāi Tahu and all peoples. Some scaling of the rockface is needed and the Otago Section of the NZ Alpine Club have done the job for free, just asking for a talk on the Rock Art sites for their mahi. That is the way to do it - when all parties are respected, great things happen.


The whole area is coming alive

Timaru Herald

Also becoming more accessible later in the year will be Maori rock art sites at Craigmore and Totara Valley. Te Ana, the Ngai Tahu Rock Art Centre in Timaru, plans to start scheduled tours to the two areas later this year. It has leased an eight-hectare site in Totara Valley to gain access to one of the most significant rock drawings, the giant taniwha. The area will be placed under a QEII covenant that protects vulnerable natural features or habitats.

Timaru Herald

A four-day festival featuring South Canterbury's Maori rock art and highlighting Ngai Tahu heritage, is being planned with the help of $50,000 from a special Rugby World Cup festival fund. In announcing the grant, the New Zealand Lotteries Festival Fund said the four-day festival would celebrate southern heritage, culture and creativity, with a programme centred around the theme of Maori Rock Art. It is designed to highlight Ngai Tahu heritage and the stories told through previous Maori rock art taonga.

Now this is fantastic and I take my hat off to the innovative thinkers who thought this festival up. The connections are everything - the stories, the histories, the legends, the knowledge. By respecting Ngāi Tahutanga all people are connected. Thank you to all involved.

A wonderful post on the taonga here at Introducing Maori Lifestyles

Taonga returned

Great news that this taonga māori rock art has been returned home. I have posted about the taonga of the māori rock art here and here and it is great that Te Ana, the Ngāi Tahu Māori Rock Art Centre is opening in December.

From Katarina Filipe Timaru Herald

"After nearly 100 years, 12 pieces of art were welcomed back to Waihao Marae with a powhiri yesterday, attended by representatives from Waihao, Arowhenua and Moeraki runanga.

The drawings were removed from sites in the Aoraki area in 1916 by American antiquarian James Lee Elmore and have since been housed in museum collections around the country and overseas.

How do the people feel?

Wendy Heath, kaikaranga of the tangata whenua, said the return of the art was "huge".

"They mean so much to us. They were done by our tupuna, they're our link to our tupuna in that sense. It's just so heartwarming.

"[The centre is] going to be brilliant for Timaru and South Canterbury as a whole. Us sharing our treasures with people will give them a better understanding of who we are."

Good effort from all concerned. Visiting these taonga will be a essential for anyone coming through Timaru and that is awesome because each of these visitors, whether from here or somewhere else, will get an introduction to Ngāi Tahu whanui. Eco-cultural tourism, where context is given to create connection, is what visitors want - they want to understand and interact.

german tourist desecrates Maori Rock Art

German tourist desecrating Maori Rock Art

Source Timaru Herald

So breaking into protective enclosures and desecrating maori rock art is just a big joke is it german tourist? You know, I'd rather not have any tourists here if they are going to do that.

From the Timaru Herald

"Ngai Tahu is outraged that a German tourist has broken into a steel cage protecting ancient Maori rock wall paintings and then boasted about it online.

Pictures have appeared online of a German tourist breaking into the Maerewhenua Maori rock art site near Duntroon.

The woman is pictured climbing past the protective netting around the rock drawings and then inside the site.

Ngai Tahu Maori Rock Art Trust curator Amanda Symon was outraged.

"The rocks are caged for a reason.

"They have come here and desecrated one of our heritage sites. It is just completely thoughtless to squeeze in there.

"She is brushing past a rock drawing so there is huge potential to do damage."

Young and dumb is no excuse. The rock art is caged for a reason - why is this any different from having a poo in the sistine chapel. That tourist will now reap the reaction to her very poor judgement.

Footnote - More from the Timaru Herald

from comments on the webpage - thanks Mike

"I'm sorry for bending a piece of metal"

"Well, we are some people who first of all never damaged anything, which wouldn't have been damaged before by hammering metal into an ancient rock, but that's another issue.

Yes - called irrelevant. Accept responsibility - you did it and you can't justify it because it was already damaged - it was and that was why protective fencing was in place.

"When we came there, there were several writings [graffiti] already written on the site. And no I don't agree with writing on ancient sites, seriously I would be the last person.

"So we were standing there, trying to figure out which one of the ancient drawings was really ancient and which ones weren't. It was basically impossible to tell and there was the temptation of the fact that somebody must have managed to get into a well secured place.

Whilst i think this tourist is actually being more insulting here, I'm going to let that go because it is a good point we need interpretation to help these people work out the context of this Rock Art - Runaka members would be the place to start.

"So we started wondering how hard can it be to go in there. It was more the fascination of solving a riddle than to actually get a prize for it. It wasn't hard after all."

Yes big olympic gold for you - what a hero.

"That was all. We solved the riddle, got in, took a picture that it is possible to trick your own kind, didn't touch a thing, went out again and left the place exactly how it was before."

Well it wasn't exactly the same was it? Keep fooling yourself.

"She then goes on to say the metal was bent back to its original position.

"Do me a favour and worry about things that really matter, things you have an influence in. Did you hug your kids today? Do you know if they smoke?"

Accept responsibility - you came here and accepted our hospitality.

Don't come back here german tourist, please, we really don't want or need people like you and your mates around.

"I wanted to support my community"

A great initiative.

"A 22-year-old Dunedin woman, whose friends have been affected by unemployment and suicides, has decided to help by starting a tourism venture aimed at tapping into the lucrative cruise ship market.

Jackie McGregor (Nga Puhi), who has been part of a kapa haka group since she was 7, was dismayed to find many of her friends in kapa haka were unemployed and left despondent by suicides in the wider Maori community.

"I wanted to do something to support my community."

What a fantastic sentiment.

"The former hospitality worker had the idea of setting up a kapa haka group aimed at the cruise ship market as she was often asked by tourists if there were any Maori cultural performances in Dunedin.

"This has been designed to give us, as a community, an opportunity to support ourselves."

Maori creating opportunities to enlighten others about maoritanga - the cruise ship passengers will love it!

"A research project by the University of Otago marketing department, supported by the Dunedin City Council, concluded the potential for Maori tourism products in the city was "immense".

Immense.

Well done on getting this idea working jackie - i hope local tangata whenua are helping you out too.

transformational experiences - get maori involved

Listen to the expert.

"The tourism industry has its back against a wall and needs to question its core thinking to survive, a visiting expert says.

Strategic tourism consultancy Desti-Corp founder Anna Pollock said the traditional interpretation of seasonal travel trends was superficial and no longer worked.

Having worked in tourism for 30 years, Ms Pollock said the change the industry was facing was bigger than the economic downturn. It was more about a shift in philosophies than economic patterns.

"We are changing between two mindsets of how to exist and operate on this planet."

Countries such as Finland were using their design capabilities to create a tourism experience which amplified the natural environment.

As the dated industrial viewpoint faded and a more social and community focused imperative replaced it, visitors were already looking for "transformative" experiences.

New Zealand had positioned itself well to deliver that, but not without some work."

Transformative experiences - that is what encorporating maoritanga, in a meaningful way, will bring. We need to create journeys for our visitors, we need to create context and connection.

In my experience, visitors want to know, not just what it is, but what it means and how it relates to them. And it can be done quite easily because it is a mindset change.

It is time to rethink our whole strategy - 100% pure is a line that will only lead to disappointment because the expectations are set too high. No one, anywhere, is 100% pure, no one in this world can be.

Ngai Tahu have the perfect opportunity to really get a good start around ecocultural tourism. We have the land, we have the sea and the rivers and we have the people.

one third of tourists to dunedin want more maori

We have discussed ecocultural tourism a few times now.

This report adds weight

"commissioned by the Economic Development unit and supported by the City’s Māori Participation Working Party, has found that almost one third of tourists in Dunedin are interested in genuine Māori Cultural experiences. Over 50 of the 200 tourism businesses interviewed indicated that they believe incorporating Māori culture into their operations would add value to their business."

Yep tourists don't want to see little england they want maori culture - even in dunedin. And i know this to be true because i used to drive tourists out onetahua (farewell spit). The tourists i took for 6.5 hours wanted context, they wanted relevance to their own lives and the world and they wanted to know the stories, the legends. Even when discussing the geology, they wanted the indigenous view not the view from england. We, as a country, have to accept this, we as an iwi have to accept it too.

"Tourism Dunedin chief executive Hamish Saxton said tourists were interested in cultural tourism. Dunedin, often the first port of call for cruise ships, was ideally suited to new Māori tourism ventures. A Ngāi Tahu Tourism spokesman said tourists to New Zealand valued Māori culture and were keen to learn more and “we welcome studies that show this to be the case”.

Otakou rūnanga spokesman Edward Ellison said besides the city’s wildlife attractions, tourists wanted to know more about the history and culture of the area and the iwi should capitalise on that interest. "

Yes Edward is right and this should and must be driven through the regions or runaka.
And there are many ways to do it but the key is to make something happen. If we wait, by the time it gets organised it will be too late.

I thought that NT Tourism was producing a paper around this area. Has it been produced? Who has seen it? i hope it has been completed and that actions are being taken. Move now - don't wait around.

Jarawa tribe under threat

Members of Jarawa tribe


Please note I have added another post regarding the current human safari disgrace facing the Jarawa Tribe here


Original post
 

We have it tough but others have it tougher.

"When the Jarawa tribe of hunter-gatherers began to emerge in ones and twos from the dense rainforests of the Andaman islands in 1997, it seemed that these mysterious, handsome people only wanted to take a brief look at the modern world and would soon return to the trees.

The majority of the Jarawa, thought to number about 250 people, remain deep in the forests, but some have learned bits of Hindi and regularly visit the port, the hospital or market place, says Sophie Grig, a researcher at human rights organisation Survival International who has visited the Andamans several times.

Integration has been partial and more or less at the Jarawa's own pace and volition. But now comes a threat that some anthropologists say could lead to the extinction of a tribe that has lived in isolation for millennia.

Barefoot India, a major Indian travel company, has just won a high court case that will allow it to build an eco-resort at Collipur, close to the designated Jarawa reserve. Other hotels are expected to follow."

Eco-cultural tourism - it makes sense but what about the experience from indigenous people overseas. What do maori have to watch out for?

"There are perhaps 100 indigenous communities around the world that have chosen to live in complete isolation, but the frontiers of tourism are being pushed ever forward by cheap flights and an appetite for extreme ethno-tourism fuelled by the natural instinct of man to be curious about other people.

The Jarawa are peculiarly at risk because they live so close to a holiday resort, but dozens of other extremely remote groups are also in danger. In the West Papua province of Indonesia, US expatriate Kelly Woolford of Papua Adventures offers - for $7,000-$10,000 - to take tourists and camera crews deep into the forests of the Mamberamo and Baliem valleys, where he says they are quite likely to meet "stone age" tribes.

Papua Adventures does not guarantee "encounters", but its "first contact" trek is advertised as a "full-on exploration" in areas where previously contact-free tribes are known to live.

Groups regularly stumble across tribespeople who appear to threaten them with bows and arrows, but who then disappear. Anthropologists and others who have seen photographs have accused Woolford of setting up these encounters, but he insists that the meetings are all by chance.

"Tourism can be a useful source of income, but most people would say it's pretty bad news for the local people," says anthropologist David Turton.

Turton has spent 40 years among the semi-nomadic Mursi in the Omo valley in southern Ethiopia, where some women have had their lower lip pierced and stretched so that a clay plate can be inserted. With the prospect of a giant dam flooding much of their lands, the tribe has enough problems, but it has been exploited by tourism now for 20 years.

Tour companies have presented the Mursi as the most primitive and wild people and the Mursi are fully aware they are being singled out as savages. The tourists arrive in four-wheel drive vehicles and the Mursi gather around them, asking for money in return for being photographed.

Turton has asked the Mursi what they think of these people, who only seem to want their photographs. He recorded this conversation in 1991:

Bio-iton-giga: "Why do they do it? Do they want us to become their children, or what? What do they want the photographs for?"

Turton: "They come because they see you as different and strange people. They go back home and tell their friends that they've been on a long trip, to Mursiland. They say, 'Look, here are the people we saw.' They do it for entertainment."

Komor-a-kora: "We said to each other, 'Are we here just for their amusement?' "

"They conclude that white people are thieves. The relationship is similar to prostitution," says Turton. "The Mursi know they are looked down on. But to them the encounter is a commercial transaction. They are short of everything and cash is important."

These days, tribes are regularly diminished in the name of economic advancement. The refugee Burmese Kayan women in Thailand, who wear brass coils round their necks, each year attract thousands of tourists, who pay to visit them in their camps. Their communities are disintegrating as alcoholic dependency grows.

Governments also act inhumanely to encourage tourism. The Botswana government is putting out to tender for safari companies to build lodges with bore holes in the central Kalahari game reserve at the same time that the Bushmen - who have lived there for millennia - are forbidden to even use the existing ones. One safari lodge will have a water hole less than a mile from the Bushmen, who will be made to walk hundreds of miles to collect water.

The worst destruction of indigenous groups is often invisible, done by governments and the tourism industry exploiting tribal groups for their land. "Indigenous peoples are often removed from their ancestral lands to make way for tourist developments or to create national parks where animals take precedence over people," says Tricia Barnett, director of Tourism Concern.

But above all, land everywhere is being claimed at the expense of indigenous people for the construction of hotels and golf courses, and for the creation of national parks and reserves.

Successful ventures, such as with the Akha hill tribe in Thailand, Aboriginal cultural tours in Australia, the Garifuna tourism group in Honduras and the Il Ngwesi Lodge in Kenya, which is 100% owned by local Maasai, are invariably grassroots-led and community-based. "

Grassroots led - let's call it flaxroots, and community-based. That is the answer to the exploitation of indigenous people and the successful development of ecocultural tourism.
  

virtual history good - if it is the truth

I'm not sure about this. If Maori are involved - good, and if not, then, not good.

"Massey University associate professor Erik Champion is leading a charge to "virtualise" New Zealand's heritage content and sites, and says the move could boost the tourism industry here.
Digital media developers could create virtual worlds or games that allow people to explore and interact with ancient cultures and distant places that were previously inaccessible or dangerous."

Who controls this? If not Maori, then it is not right.
And I find the rationale "to boost tourism here" to be a bit funny, how about trying to create tools to teach people the true history of this country, as an example. (But i conceed i might be being a bit precious here)

"Virtual technology could also recreate fragile heritage sites that may one day be off limits, such as the ruins of Machu Picchu in Peru and Stonehenge in England."

Imagine these sites off limits to the people. Who makes these indigenous sites off-limits? And who will be able to go? The scientists, the gatekeepers - I wonder if many of the indigenous people will get a say.

"Tourism New Zealand chief executive George Hickton says anything that helps to promote New Zealand's history and culture would be welcomed, but "nothing will ever replace a trip to New Zealand to enjoy the country first hand".

"This concept could also provide a useful tool for New Zealand tourism operators to show the history and development of tourism products."

Well let's hope they use the real history of this country not the sanitised, one people rubbish that is often bandied about.

And having these virtual worlds, if they are created via an indigenous viewpoint will be excellent tools to teach the people of this country the history.

167,000 people a month projected to fly into queenstown

Forecasts for Queenstown international airport are that they expect more than 2 million visitors a year by 2037. That's 4 times the current amount!

So currently they get 500,000 visitors a year. That's 42,000 people a month, over 9,500 a week or 1,400 a day.

If it is 2,000,000 visitors a year, that is 167,000 people a month, about 38,500 a week or 5,500 a day.

That is a lot of people, and this is only the international flying visitors not the drivers or campervans or buses.

So it makes sense when they then say, "To accommodate such growth, the airport, at Frankton, needs to expand to the southeast rather than the northeast, leading to "discussions" with Remarkables Park Ltd for the required 22ha of land." doesn't it?

hmmmmm, in Auckland they have just dug up 85 maori to extend the runway for the rugby world cup.

hmmmmm, at the moment we have accomodation businesses falling over, perhaps it would make strategic sense for Ngai Tahu to get in there, after all those 167,000 people a month are going to need somewhere to stay and something eco-cultural-tourism to do and sorry, shotover jet doesn't fit into that!

To be honest I think Ngai Tahu tourism is a misnomer. There is no Ngai Tahu Tourism just businesses owned by Ngai Tahu that are in the toruism sector.

maori will make the cycletrack unique

I'm a fan of the new cycleway initiative. Good on key for twisting english's arm up his back and signing off on the $50M. This isn't the whole answer but it does create some jobs: and the advantage of having a cycling holiday traversing the country sounds like fun to me.

The way to really get the project going is to think of ways to create experiences for the riders. Yes, the scenary is awesome but there are real advantages in building context around the journey. What better way than to offer people tangata whenua interpretations that actually mean something.

Could be something to mull over.

Big opportunity for Ngai Tahu

Pretty sure we will see more and more of this.

"Queenstown Lodge is on the the market for sale through a private treaty, nearly six months after it was placed in receivership."

"The property has 130 beds in 56 rooms, together with four self-contained apartments, licensed restaurant and bar, lounge-games room, spa and sauna complex, and reception area."

Perhaps Ngai Tahu should be keeping their eyes and checkbook open. We could pick up a bargin and maybe turn it into a training centre for rangatahi. Or run the place as an eco-cultural lodge, based around our stories, our way of welcoming people and looking after them.

Ngai Tahu Rock Art needs protection now!

Why not spend a fraction of the $50 million to support the Ngai Tahu Maori Rock Art Trust.

We are the kaitiaki of this most precious taonga. We must support the efforts to protect and empower the local runaka and the Trust so that we have no more loss - loss that can never come back.

What could be done? We know that over 500 rock art sites have been recorded by SIMRAP, only a small fraction of these are being actively protected and managed. That is discraceful!

Immediately all recorded sites should be bought into a management plan. The plan could include employment opportunities for young Ngai Tahu. Ecocultural tourism and culturally sensitive tours for guests/tourists run by Ngai Tahu for Ngai Tahu. Managed and run at the runaka level.

Many iwi members have never seen or been close to their sacred taonga, left for them by their ancestors. They would be honoured to be allowed to. All parties win, the heroes who keep the home fires burning and those coming back, humbly, heroes too, to learn and reconnect with their rightful histories.

This Trust still has to seek sponsorship - whats wrong with sponsoring our own?

Seriously, what possible reason could there be for this neglect.

If we have to buy all the land they are on, who cares, make them offers they can't refuse = that's what $50 million is for.

The key is speed. Each day more and more slips away. Push this up the agenda. Make it a priority. Get off your hands and stop thinking like pakehas - the money isn't the issue!