Maori Television by Jo Smith

Maori Television by Jo Smith

Author:Jo Smith
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Auckland University Press
Published: 2016-10-15T00:00:00+00:00


Māori Television’s contribution to cultural knowledge

According to focus group kōrero, Māori Television’s educative potential is not restricted to language learning. Kōrero suggests that Māori Television acts as a conveyor of cultural knowledge, as an archive of material important for future generations, and as a site of authority on matters concerning Māori. When asked, ‘What does Māori Television teach you?’ one participant replied:

Well almost everything on [Māori Television] is teaching you something. Whether it’s supposed to be or it’s indirectly. So on the Te Reo channel they play re-runs of Waka Huia from back in the day, and there’s always something of interest on that. So the last one I watched on there . . . it was the history of Te Matatini and it was . . . I never knew half of that stuff. Whenever I watch Wairua I learn about a whole different way of looking at the world because that’s what that show’s about. On Pūkana I always pick up new colloquialisms, new words, heaps of little things like that.

These comments underscore Māori Television’s role as an important source of te reo and tikanga Māori content, providing contemporary audiences with kōrero, faces and activities from the past. Māori Television’s re-runs of the long-standing Waka Huia also makes the organisation the kaitiaki of an existing taonga, the voices and perspectives documented by this long-running programme. Waka Huia also provides historical background to contemporary popular events such as Te Matatini. Wairua (featuring experts such as Patu Hohepa discussing the spiritual dimensions of te ao Māori) provides knowledge and expertise difficult to access otherwise.

Another participant appreciated Iwi Anthems, because it offered a deeper understanding of the history surrounding certain waiata:

I like [Iwi Anthems] because it starts to make you understand that that waiata came from that area. It was Kahungunu’s turn last night. So yeah, we have those melodies in our own head that we’ve heard when we were young and things like that, but to actually put a place to where they come from – it’s nice. And to see old kaumātua and kuia with grey hair standing on the stage singing.

This comment suggests that shows such as Iwi Anthems play an important role in not only honouring the skills, wisdom and mana of kaumātua and kuia, but also in deepening the existing knowledge of a participant who may know the words of a waiata but not the historical context.

This programming example also demonstrates Māori Television’s additional role as producer or commissioner of contemporary Māori programming, providing documentation of te ao Māori today. In doing so, the network continues and extends the archive tradition set by Waka Huia. Such programming includes content unseen elsewhere, as one participant noted:

There was one [programme] on making fire and I think a Tūhoe guy on horseback going around showing which woods made fire – how to do it and how to keep it for weeks, and it was amazing. I’d never seen anything quite like it. I think [television’s] a real good way of conveying some of that knowledge.



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