The Storytellers

The Māori tech company behind the Arataki Cultural Trails app is continuing the Māori oral tradition in a very modern way and, in doing so, hopes to foster cultural understanding and preserve stories.

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He aha te kai ō te rangatira? He kōrero, he kōrero, he kōrero. What is the food of the leader? It is knowledge. It is communication — Māori whakataukī (proverb)

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The Māori oral tradition of passing down significant stories, songs and sayings, about everything from whenua (land) to whakapapa (genealogy) is a critical part in teaching Te Reo, tikanga (customs) and history. Preserving this precious tradition is a constant challenge for Māori in colonised Aotearoa. Arataki Systems, a Māori tech company launched in Tauranga, has come up with a modern way to pass down these stories. Its phone app, Arataki Cultural Trails, allows people to listen to historical and cultural stories at significant sites in the Bay of Plenty and beyond. The app is not only a way of reinvigorating the vital oral tradition of Māori storytelling, it also aims to preserve these important stories for future generations. “Narrative at place — mountains, rivers, oceans, is an especially important part of our culture; whenua is important to us,” says the company’s co-founder and CEO, Lee Timutimu (Ngāti Awa, Ngāi Te Rangi, Tūhoe, Ngāti Porou). Lee runs the company with his younger brother, Denym Harawira, CIO (Ngāti Awa, Ngāi Te Rangi, Tūhoe), and cousin Clayton Low, CTO (Ngai Tai, Tūhoe), along with three other Māori employees. Lee says one of Arataki’s visions is “to bridge the cultural gaps between communities in Aotearoa”, pointing out how key the stories are for non-Māori too. “We’ve purposefully not charged the end user to access the stories because this is an incredibly important part of what we do.” Arataki Systems is the merging of two different areas where Lee has been forging a path for many years. “I have spent the last 20 years in IT, specifically in support roles, but I also have a background in the Māori storytelling space, and this company brings those two worlds together.”

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Stories for Tamariki

Lee’s side project for the past 11 years is called Te Reo Wainene o Tua, a collective of Māori storytellers that have been reinvigorating the oral tradition around Aotearoa. The publicly funded initiative involves free Māori storytelling events for children at most major libraries in New Zealand. The events are full immersion and Lee chooses the storytellers carefully to appeal to kids. “We have a roster of storytellers we access — many work in Māori media, such as Scotty and Stacey Morrison. It was important for us to engage people that were already prominent in the minds of our children, as I knew we’d be competing with technology — kids are very connected to their devices. Once we get them in the door, the rest is easy,” says Lee. He relishes that moment when kids engage with the story being told — often it’s about a direct ancestor — and a breakthrough happens. “That is what’s kept me in this particular initiative for so long. I have literally seen hundreds of connections being made between our storytellers and our kids — babies right through to teenagers. It makes it all worth while.”
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“I spend a lot of time building trust — working through the process with iwi, hapū, marae, whānau etc. That’s the only way you’re going to get access to these treasured stories,”

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Cultural Trails

Lee sees these same connections being made through the Cultural Trails app they’ve created, which connects the wider community with their area’s stories. “I want to provide accessibility to these stories for Māori, but certainly for non-Māori too — I think it provides an opportunity to be educated and informed, and perhaps develop some empathy,” he says. “For example, when we set up at Mauao base track and shared stories at culturally significant sites, there was a lot of feedback coming through from both Māori and non-Māori saying, ‘Wow, we didn’t even know these stories, this is really cool’. It’s not like they disregarded the stories, they didn’t know they were there, even though they lived next to Mauao.” Gathering stories for the Cultural Trails app takes time, with protocols to follow. “I spend a lot of time building trust — working through the process with iwi, hapū, marae, whānau etc. That’s the only way you’re going to get access to these treasured stories,” says Lee. “Once you have that, people will start guiding you to the caretakers of their stories. It’s not something we can hurry — we take all the time we need.” Once those stories are on the app, they’re free to access. Each guide to an area consists of a collection of stories — you’re able to download any stories to your device when you have wifi. The app is proximity activated, so when you get to the site, it sees your GPS location and will automatically activate the relevant story. If you’re offline, the stories are activated by bluetooth beacons or using a QR code. The bottom line, you don’t need an internet connection when you’re being guided on any of the walks. Arataki’s clients mainly include local councils and central government, as well as iwi. The stories stay on the app while the client pays a subscription. That virtual hīkoi around Mauao base track was the very first guide four years ago, and now other guides include the Kopurererua Valley and the University of Waikato Sculpture Trail. There are also stories along Hamilton’s Te Awa river ride, where you can walk inside parts of the pest-proof enclosure at Sanctuary Mountain Maungatautari and hear stories about the maunga (mountain) from the perspectives of tangata whenua. The Arataki team have a global vision, with a plan to share the platform with other indigenous communities that want to tell their stories. “We’ve already established a business partnership with First Australians in South Australia, Ngarrindjeri, and we’re working on that now. It will kind of be the pilot for other indigenous partnerships,” says Lee. “Our goal is to share 1 million stories” it states on the Arataki site — a mighty challenge. “I’m pretty certain we won’t achieve that during our lifetime, but it does lean in to our goals of being able to pass this to the next generation,” says Lee. “We want to create inter-generational impact — we hope it endures for the next few generations, it’s not just about now.” Ⓟ

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Story by Sarah Nicholson