It is intended that this paper will allow modern day tech savvy and generation millennial Māori, ICT whānau, government organisations and their staff, Knowledge/Information workers and groups (non Māori) to at least consider some Māori traditional knowledge and beliefs associated modern day telecommunications and smart phones.
A common colonial myth is that Māori were not aware of space, navigation and communications. Yet Māori had intimate knowledge of the stars, planets, constellations and natural phenomena, weather and they were certainly aware of how to communicate using psychological and natural phenomena in addition to their heave oral culture.
In traditional Māori society there were men whose primary role was to study the stars and planets. Every star, planet and constellation had a name. These men were consulted by fishermen, Gardner’s, travelers and voyagers. Western research has now confirmed traditional knowledge, that Māori did indeed voyage all around the Pacific (maybe further using the starts for navigation. Māori knowledge of the heavenly bodies and their movements was in several instances a scientific one, as, for instance, when Māori navigated their vessels during deep-ocean voyages, and when he watched for the heliacal rising of stars to mark the commencement of the Māori year and of certain seasons and activities (Best, 1922).
If we consider that the health framework for Māori “Te Whare Tapa Whā” states: “The spiritual essence of a person is their life force. This determines us as individuals and as a collective, who and what we are, where we have come from and where we are going” (Durie, 1984) A traditional Māori analysis of physical and mental manifestations of illness will focus on the wairua or spirit, to determine whether damage here could be a contributing factor due to smart phone usage and spectrum.
This paper will discuss and compare the extinct Taonga Species the Huia (Heteralocha acutirostris) and the containers that stored its feathers and other taonga called Waka Huia and Papahou. The paper will then compare the cosmological aspects of the Huia, the features of a wakahuia and purpose of a Papahou with the modern-day smart phones.
The Māori heavens are compared to the different radio spectrum bands used by telecommunication providers. The traditional story of Tāne obtaining the three baskets of knowledge from the last heaven is introduced as a modern way of traditional communications.
The paper will then discuss traditional Māori beliefs, many of which are stated in this paper but that are largely practiced only by government agencies such as: Archives NZ, The National Library and Ngā Taonga Sound and Vision; on the marae and in our homes; but not by Māori individuals and Iwi organisations with digital devices that are used to interact with others on a daily basis.
This paper then concludes that some considerations that a digital device should be considered tapu and a taonga.