The pivotal Te Maori exhibition was a crucial moment in Māori cultural revival, showcasing traditional artwork on the international stage as it toured the United States from 1984 to 1986. When it returned, it toured Aotearoa New Zealand as Te Maori: Te Hokinga Mai The Return Home. It is widely acclaimed as an exhibition that changed the way that museums and art galleries interpreted and managed taonga Māori. The 40th anniversary of Te Maori inspired two events to improve its Wikipedia article and contributing topics. Te Herenga Waka Museum Studies intern Elise Goodge explores what made these events so unique.
Wikipedia is the largest online repository of free knowledge. There are almost 7 billion articles written in English to date. One of those is the article for Te Maori, the landmark exhibition of taonga that toured the United States before returning to Aotearoa as Te Maori: Te Hokinga Mai.
Since 1984, and all the more so now we’ve reached the 40th anniversary of its opening at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, there’s been a wealth of kōrero about the exhibition’s phenomenal impact. However, while other editors had done some great work on the article for Te Maori only a fraction of these stories could be found on Wikipedia.
Wikipedia is one of the most popular websites on the planet and is used by people of all ages, especially as the first way of learning something new. Impressively, all those articles have been written by volunteers.
However, that can leave gaps when there aren’t enough people with the interest – or time – to cover them. Once you get outside Europe and North America, the number of Wikipedians (volunteer editors) drops hard.
Improving coverage of specific topics is often the motivation for holding an editathon, where Wikipedians get together with the resources, mutual help, and kai to fuel new and better articles.
Te Papa has hosted editathons in the past, but this was the first time doing it for an ao Māori subject, and we decided it needed a kaupapa Māori approach. Hui, kōrero, translation, and planning resulted in a new kind of editathon – a Tauoma Takatā.
Tauoma Takatā – Wikipedia editathons for Māori content
A new model for editathons needed to be grounded in core Māori values – tika, pono, and aroha.
- Tika means ensuring only appropriate knowledge is shared and according to Māori customary practice.
- Pono means ensuring that the events are valid for Māori and our conduct is honest.
- Aroha means ensuring we, as facilitators, are kind and supportive.
It was also important to ground it in te reo Māori, so the Te Papa writers developed new kupu to describe editathons (tauoma takatā) and Wikipedians (ringa takatā mātāpunenga).
We also thought through what needed to happen during the events. We decided on a more formalised structure that reflected something closer to what might happen on a during a wānanga.
This included the use of karakia, waiata, and manaakitanga to make participants feel welcome and supported. We included time for whakawhanaungatanga so everyone got to know each other and find connections.
What was achieved?
Throughout the two Tauoma Takatā hosted by Te Papa the Te Maori article tripled in size with tons of new references were added so readers can find out more.
Along with these improvements several new Wikipedia articles were created, including Te Maori: Te Hokinga Mai and a biographical article on Mina McKenzie, the only woman on the Te Maori organising committee. Artists and academics inspired by and commenting on Te Maori also got new and improved articles.
Beyond the content, one of the main goals of hosting editathons is to introduce more people to editing so the Wikipedian community becomes more diverse and continues to grow.
Editing Wikipedia is surprisingly easy when you know how and editathons are a great way to learn alongside more experienced people. Over the two days, three brand new editors came along and had their first go at editing a Wikipedia article, and went away with the skills to keep doing more.
There is still work to do to ensure that more Māori stories are represented on Wikipedia and that they are created in a safe and appropriate way that reflect Māori goals and values. The work started during these Tauoma Takatā will continue, along with planning for future events and topics.
We’ve started a guidance page to help others who want to run Māori-centred editathons. Ultimately, we want to see a growing group of Māori Wikipedians working on the kōrero that matter to them, supported by a culturally aware community of editors across Aotearoa.
