A Draft Statement on Whakapapa

Whakapapa is a term used to stand for a fund of stories and related genealogies created and maintained by Maori to explain and understand the world around them. This fund of stories and genealogies relate the origin and nature of phenomenon and the purpose of existence; they provide ethical and moral guidance and serve as the basis of the behaviour of the culture. Whakapapa is a vast pool of information about everything in the experience of the human person - from the macrocosm (the origin of the world, for example) through to the microcosm (the way thought arrives in the mind, for example).

This statement needs some working on. Words like 'origin' need discussion and clarification which will be the topic of subsequent blogs.

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