Centring pūrākau as a decolonising force in land-based design in the age of he huringa āhuarangi
Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: For Māori, pūrākau are oral narratives of place passed through generations and sustained as a weaving of past, present and future connections with land. Pūrākau are a central force in Indigenous knowledges of whenua and essential to meaningful design of Aotearoa environments. Critically, 80% of marae are sited in low-lying coastal or flood-prone areas, amplifying the vulnerability of whenua Māori to the escalating impacts of changing climates. We ask what the role of architectural practice, more specifically, Māori architecture practice, might be in this complex situation of marae resilience when issues present as less about buildings and more about securing an enduring land–people relationality. Pūrākau are approached as method via expressive and analytical drawing practices developed to test their force in the path towards marae resilience. With practice-based threads, this study demonstrates how conventional architectural design techniques alone are unfit for responding to marae resilience. In an expansion of architectural methods, we explore decolonial and indigenised means to tailor a more appropriate response to he huringa āhuarangi.
Authors: Antonia van Sitter, Hannah Higgison
Institution: Victoria University of Wellington
Language: English
Subfield: Health
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W4413181395