Te Ataakura: Digital taonga and cultural innovation

Abstract

The Te Ataakura project is among the latest in a series of initiatives undertaken by the Ma-ori tribal organization Toi Hauiti to revisit, rekindle and restore knowledge of their ancestral taonga (artefacts), many of which are now dispersed among collections throughout New Zealand and internationally. This article describes some of these earlier projects, which deployed digital technologies in innovative ways, as part of a broader strategy of artistic and economic revitalization. It outlines Toi Hauiti’s continuing efforts to build relationships with holding institutions at home and abroad, and to explore possibilities offered by recent technological developments. Setting this work in the context of similar initiatives on the part of other Ma-ori, with a focus on cultural revitalization and institutional collaboration, we consider the role of digitization in cultural endurance and dynamism, offering a critical view of emergent concepts including ‘digital taonga’ and ‘virtual repatriation’.