Abstract:
This thesis interrogates the history of photography in Ngāti Porou
to show how lens-based image making can enact Mātauranga
Waiapu: cultural knowledge systems specific to this place and
oriented to the restoration of the Waiapu river and the wider taiao
or environment. The creative works in the project critically adopt
the strategies of landscape photography to activate transformative
relationships among iwi and hapū in recognition of the degradation
of Te Riu o Waiapu by settler colonial practices of deforestation.
The thesis situates these works within a history of image making
in Ngāti Porou that have been resources for mana motuhake
(sovereignty / self-determination) through their articulation
of Mātauranga Waiapu in the form of maramataka / seasonal
almanacs, kōrero taunahanaha / geographical narratives, mōteatea
/ laments and poetry, pūrākau / stories, and kōrero a-iwi / tribal
accounts. The thesis proposes the term ‘whakapapa lens’ to account
for how Mātauranga Waiapu connects historical, contemporary
and future photography, film and videography among Ngāti Porou
engaged in the intergenerational struggle to maintain whenua
takutai (coastal lands) and puna wai (freshwater springs) against
the destructive forces of settler colonisation and extraction.
Working with the methodological principle that, first and foremost,
the stories of land must be told and shared on the land, the project
pursued marae-based hui and wānanga to find new ways to reflect
Ngāti Porou tikanga in the roles taken behind and in front of the
camera and in modes for sharing the resulting lens-based works in
the community.
