January 17, 2017
Maori Maps rewritten for phones
The Maori Maps
Te Potiki National Trust chair Paul Tapsell says the six-month redevelopment was enabled by a generous donation by The Tindall Foundation.
He says having a site that displays well on mobile phones will help varied users to find their way to marae across the country.
The trust aims to reconnect young Maori – the potiki generation – to their ancestral identities, while helping marae communities to become more visible and self-sustaining.
“Developing a sense of identity is vital to the well-being of young Maori today, and can help with the many challenges they face in urban New Zealand,” Dr Tapsell says.
At the same time marae themselves, many of which rely on declining populations of elders to keep going, need to connect more closely to their descendants as well as visitors and supporters.
The revised design adds features including links to marae that are adjacent or related by whakapapa to the marae being searched.
Greater prominence is now given to images, most of which were taken by renowned photographer Krzysztof Pfeiffer.
The site’s Google Maps base now displays a cluster symbol featuring the number of marae in a given area, and zooming in further on the map begins to reveal the details of individual marae.
Alongside key information and driving directions for each marae, where available there is also data supplied by Chorus to indicate Internet accessibility.
Te Potiki National Trust is now working to complete the full translation of the site into Te Reo and to publish a guidebook to marae, while developing social programmes to reconnect young Māori with their marae.
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