The University of Auckland TTL LiDAR scans bridging solutions to share Māori ancient knowledge and natural landscapes with the whenua and the people.

Over the last 12 years, photographer Dr Joyce Campbell, Associate Professor in Fine Arts from the University of Auckland, has worked closely with Ngāi Kohatu kaumātua and tribal historian and storyteller Richard Niania, sharing the stories of the largest catchment in the Hawke’s Bay region. In the last few years, this project expanded to include many other hapu and stakeholder groups in Wairoa and a substantial team of University of Auckland academics, in the context of climate and flood events.

Joyce and her team used a TTL LiDAR scanner (a Trimble TX6) to capture point clouds of landscapes significant to the local community. They then processed the point clouds in Trimble Realworks, eventually importing point cloud sections into Blender, placed virtual cameras around the landscape, and exported point cloud “photographs.” The print digital negatives were inked with ink containing charcoal sourced from burned piles of pine slash washed up on the Wairoa beach.

They’ve used this material in an exhibition at the Wairoa Museum and developed a small edition of books for distribution to local Wairoa Kura Kaupapa and kohunga reo. Richard also composed a short story/whakapapa, written in Maori te reo with local idiomatic elements, illustrated with images extracted from LiDAR point cloud data.  

To read more about the exhibition, please visit The Gisborne Herald newsletter: Exhibition ‘so us, so Wairoa’: ‘There are so many taniwha in this rohe’ says new director (gisborneherald.co.nz)