Saturday, November 10, 2007

3.1 Whakapapa in Māori Culture

Whakapapa is often translated as Māori family history or genealogy and while this is probably the easiest definition it is not necessarily the most complete one. Whakapapa is fully discussed by Hemara (2005) who argues that one of the functions of whakapapa is to “rationalise existence and explain the origins of the universe” (p. 1). Whakapapa acts as a taxonomy showing the interrelation of Gods and natural phenomenon as well as people. Similarly Royal (1993) describes whakapapa research as “a spiritual journey”(p. 10) however this is in the context, not of a research study, but of a guide for those embarking on whakapapa research. Such is the lack of peer-reviewed research in this area however that Royal’s comments are as authoritative as any. These concepts are not generally expressed as an aspect of family history research in other cultural contexts in the literature such as the work of Drake (2001) or Sinko and Peters (1983). More recently Ta’ala (2006) has emphasised the importance that whakapapa plays in defining Māori identity and the breadth of scope that it has beyond family connections and lineage. Given that there is an added element attached to whakapapa that has not been illuminated in research on Western concepts of genealogy it would be wise to factor this in to any study investigating the needs of whakapapa researchers.

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