Digital archive plan for Wairarapa Maori

Maori in Wairarapa may be leading the world with a planned digital archive of moving and still images captured and kept by the people themselves.
Rangiwhakaoma project manager Helen Morris said a public workshop was held in Masterton over the weekend to introduce potential film crews to documentary cinematography through the eyes of project advisor and renowned Wairarapa filmmaker Barry Barclay.
"Rangiwhakaoma is a revolutionary camera and image storage and retrieval system being developed in Wairarapa primarily for Wairarapa hapu, their friends and supporters, and ultimately, for the whole community", Mrs Morris said.
Examples of interview and camera technique, sound, lighting, and editing were drawn from Barclay's latest work, The Kaipara Affair, which has won an international award since its release this year.
The workshop on Saturday was held at the UCOL campus and attracted about 20 people including Wairarapa archivist Gareth Winter, Wairarapa REAP director Peter McNeur, independent filmmaker Dean Cronin, and IT consultant Matt Barclay.
Mrs Morris said there are to be another four public workshops focused on camera work, interviewing, and directing and the first interview will be captured after Labour Day.
She said Maori in Wairarapa had been consulted this year about the proposal that included a meeting with the Wairarapa Kaumatua Council "whose eyes literally brightened at the idea".
Nga Kanohi Marae O Wairarapa is managing the project in the short term, she said, after which a non-profit trust - Rangiwhakaoma Trust ? will be established to represent all hapu of Wairarapa.
Takere Leach is the first confirmed interim trustee, Mrs Morris said.
The trust will maintain the central storage unit carrying a set-up cost of up to $150,000, she said, which would be built and housed at the NZ Film Archive in Wellington.
There are several government and community agencies being eyed to help fund the computer system and "we remain very confident the funds will be found", she said.
Three working film units are proposed that cost about $3000 each, she said, and an application for funding for the camera hardware had been made to the Maori Television Service.
"Rangiwhakaoma involves recording moving digital images of daily life, reminiscences, song, family moments, community events, specialist knowledge, ceremonials, land meetings, and the like," she said.
"Recording will be done by hapu members themselves, on Rangiwhakaoma and other cameras accessed locally. Recorded images will then be deposited in the central storage unit, where storage capacity will be 'unlimited'.
"Within a few decades, stored images might run to some thousands of hours? or just one or two hundred - yet valuable beyond measure."
All images will be available to hapu members and other authorised parties on screen at home anywhere in the world ? though a high-speed internet connection will be essential.
Images may be edited at home and a top-quality copy of the edit downloaded, from which DVD copies may be burned, she said.
Digital versions of a range of other materials may be stored including family photographs, old and new; sound recordings of tribunal meetings, or local music artists; Maori language resource recordings; deeds; building specifications; genealogies; land use plans prepared for resource management hearings; even old street maps.
"It is history with a little h that the people will own ? the ownership will not be with James Belich, or Michael King, or myself. The people will record their own histories and the ownership will stay with them. This makes Rangiwhakaoma unique, perhaps in the world," said Mr Barclay.
"We are tribal people, big on stories: hullabaloo stories, tiptoe stories, stories about being brave on the ocean, afraid in the cave," he said.
"Our histories are in our stories ? our excuses, our stipulations, our witticisms, our singular virtues, our deadly sins, our enduring pride, our acts of tenderness. "Rangiwhakaoma is about capturing our own stories on our own cameras, to capture them in our own day for our descendents."
*All interested parties may contact Mrs Morris at 06 377 3390 or email ho.morris@xtra.co.nz.