With the burial sites of many tupuna no longer known, a group of Northlanders have digitally recorded the names and burial places of 750 people who have died so whanau will always know where they lie.
Delaraine Armstrong, Betty Cherrington, Matiu Prime, Alan Campion and Kris Clark of Te Orewai, a hapu of Ngati Hine in Pipiwai and Kaikou, have been using GIS (geographical information system) mapping to digitally mark the burial sites of tupuna (ancestors) buried at three of the largest wahi tapu (cemeteries) and a number of smaller ones within their tribal area.
Ms Armstrong said the project kicked off in November last year and so far they had recorded about 750 names. But there are many graves which are no longer visible and remain unknown - for situations like this the group rely on whanau to come forward with information.
"While we have some maps on rolls of wall paper which were created and maintained by whanau over the past 30 to 40 years, there are earlier graves in our wahi tapu which are now unknown. For this reason, we wanted to have a permanent, accessible record for whanau now and in the future to know exactly who and where loved ones are buried."
Their solution was to digitise the records by creating a database of names, dates of birth and death as they are written on the grave and a photo of the grave marker if possible.