As part of their work on Solar Tsunamis outreach and engagement, the team at Tūhura Otago Museum has been working with artists at Ariki Creative and animation director Oana Jones (University of Canterbury) to develop a planetarium show. It had its first screenings at MOTAT in Auckland last month, and will be heading to Papakura Museum in August, then Raetihi Marae in September. Contact outreach@otagomuseum.nz if you want to find out more.
Waihiko me te Parawhenua Kōmaru | Waihiko and the Solar Tsunami
“He hononga ki a koutou katoa – We are all connected.”
This is the sentiment woven throughout Tūhura Otago Museum’s planetarium film Waihiko me te Parawhenua Kōmaru (Waihiko and the Solar Tsunami), developed in partnership with Ariki Creative. The film uses the character of Waihiko to explain the Solar Tsunamis kaupapa in a Māori way of storytelling; by sharing pūrākau (legends), and combining elements of te ao Māori and pūtaiao (Western science) into an engaging narrative.
Waihiko is Ariki Creative’s interpretation of the atua (god) of electricity; she is the daughter of Tamanuiterā (the Sun) and Rua Korekore (the potential). As a character, Waihiko provides a Māori connection to the digital and technological realms, and highlights the power that te ira tangata (the people) have to harness unlimited potential.
In Waihiko me te Parawhenua Kōmaru, an explosion at the Halfway Bush substation in Dunedin causes significant damage to a transformer. As she goes to investigate, Waihiko is blamed for the explosion by Transpower engineers and accused of not knowing her own strength. Determined to prevent such an event from happening again, Waihiko seeks help from her powerful pāpā, Tamanuiterā. Te rā explains that it is the anniversary of Māui’s trickery, a time where he becomes restless and lets loose, magnifying Waihiko’s power. As an atua, Tamanuiterā cannot help Waihiko because her power comes from te ira tangata. Instead he tells her to go and find Professor Craig Rodger, a man who has studied the relationship between the Sun and electricity for many years, and who has a team trying to solve this very problem…
formerly Tūhura Otago Museum
Toni Hoeta helped to develop the planetarium show, and also provided the voice of Waihiko. She described her experience of working on the production:
I first encountered Waihiko at the Ariki Creative book tour when they were in Dunedin and immediately fell in love with her character. A new atua! A way to describe and relate to something we all use everyday – electricity – but in a māori worldview. I thought that this was exactly what the Solar Tsunamis project needed and got in contact with Ariki Creative. From the very beginning the team at Ariki Creative were warm, inviting, super easy to work with and had the same goal in mind as us, engaging rangatahi māori. My manager Jessa Barder and I came up with a script, wrote a story board and worked together for a few months on how we could see the Solar Tsunamis story come to life. The hardest part was trying to simplify all of the complicated science but in the end the story was really about kaitiakitanga and so it came together beautifully. Big shout out to Jessa Barder and Ariki Creative for everything they did to bring this story to life.
Top: A screenshot from the show
Below: Audiences enjoying the show at MOTAT and more screenshots
