Protecting treasures: engaging communities and recreating narratives

This paper provides an assessment of the success of SimPā from two perspectives: the milestones and objectives required of formal reporting and a more holistic Te katoa approach (everything). The SimPā project is a multiyear collaborative project that aimed to convey and strengthen Māori culture, tikaka and knowledge using digital technology. In short, the project aimed to provide a means of telling Māori stories in 3D game format. After five years, the project has achieved this through active engagement and participation, but the final outcomes are very different from those originally conceived. The representations of landscapes are examined in detail, from one perspective as providing the film sets for stories, and again as integral to the tribal context.