The Empire Cinema had a full house for the premiere of the documentary Te Mekameka o te Pa Maunga on Saturday. By Jacki Crummer Brown.

Congratulations to Liam Koka’ua for the bilingual presentation, the determination to show our maunga and interview knowledge holders to share their stories about them. 

Knowledge holders are important people in the preservation of our indigenous history that for generations has passed forward in the oral tradition.

They are our collective memory. We are fortunate to see, hear and have recorded in the documentary, Papa Makiuti Tongia and Papa Mitaera Ngatae Teatuakaro (Papa Michael Tavioni) who are living.

Certainly there are others whose words need to be recorded while they are still with us. 

There are many who have passed and sadly most recently Dr Jon Tikivanotau Jonassen, Joseph Brider, Mauri Toa, to name a few.

It is crucial and urgent that this individual knowledge is recorded and preserved as part of our history.

Digital media consists of ways of recording, capturing and representing materials through software and hardware tools.

Two recent documentaries by Liam Koka'ua and Taonga an artist activist, directed by Glenda Tuaine and made by Motone Productions, are great examples of interviewing and recording knowledge holders. 

Preserving historical audio visual materials through digitization is being facilitated by Nga Taonga Sound and Vision who are providing digitization kits to the Cook Islands.

Three trainees: Tui Tupa, Tiana Haxton and Byron Brown attended training workshops in their use.

Old formats such as VHS, CDs, DVDs and on hard drives can have a digital copy made for future access.

Cook Islands has the skilled, technical and creative people (as above and more) to record our knowledge holders and preserve our history and culture.

This is a field of work that may keep other young people living here.

I urge the Cook Islands Government through its relevant ministries to prioritise funding so that these young (mainly) people can get on with the important job of ensuring our ancient history and culture can be passed to future generations.