When our ancestors arrived in Aotearoa/New Zealand, there were already tangata whenua, indigenous folk when we arrived. The same is said for all the islands, in fact, ome disregard the western interpretation of our histories as they are always asserting a narrative. Some say that our people are the remainder of Lemuria, which was in the pacific. I have no faith in mainstream narratives. She is incorrect in her interpretation of ma-na, not, man-a. Its called utu, often seen as revenge, if someone kills one of your people u must kill one of theirs to balance the ledger, refusal to retaliate would lead to a loss of mana. This also worked in a positive sense, if we had a feast at my place, then the onus would be on you to reciprocate accordingly, this is the concept of utu. This is pretty shallow korero, speech. Many innacuracies, and as always, she pushes a narrative agenda. How on earth she can make assertions about a "King" of nan modol, completely at odds with indigenous accounts of how nan modol came to be. We say that a dwarf came and played a flute and all the basalt came floating across the ocean. Nan modol should be one of the wonders of the world as the amount of basalt used is in the hundreds of thousands of tons. Why they dont ask the natives is due to their narrative. Lame
I appreciate your contributions: as you might understand, finding information that honors indigenous perspectives out on the Internet (which is what I'm able to do with the resources that I have) is really difficult, and I understand that it tends to skew towards Western ideas and generalities. It's not an excuse, but because I'm only given three days to cover this material with students, I have to simplify and generalize and may not have the time to get into the nuanced specifics of each of the eleven cultures I'm covering: this is a world art history survey course. The information gathered for these artworks was largely sourced through SmartHistory, which is a website that is considered the gold standard for the AP Art History curriculum, and since I created these videos I've continued to update my slides and presentations as I have the time and resources to do so, but I am not a wealthy institution with access to resources or a team of researchers and fact checkers. I am not an expert on any of the topics covered in my videos, and am just trying to help my students get through the hoop of institutionalized bureaucracy that is standardized assessment.To be honest, I'd much rather yield to Native voices and perspectives, and can understand your frustration at Māori art and culture being represented in the curriculum solely by a painting done by some white guy. I would immensely appreciate any peer-reviewed resources you deem appropriate if you can provide them.
