‘Ngāti Pukamata’ Virtual iwi: Using Facebook to manage whakapapa: a case study

<p>Social networking sites such as Facebook enable like-minded people to network around the subjects that are of interest to them. One such subject that has recently sparked interest is whakapapa. For Māori, whakapapa plays an important social, political and traditional role and Māori are beginning to establish themselves in various forms without relevance to physical location. The research uses kaupapa Māori and a grounded theory framework to examine contextual problems with crowdsourced whakapapa and how Facebook addresses these problems. The research findings reinforce current thinking about attitudes, behaviours user norms and expectations of Facebook interaction and crowdsourcing. To illustrate, this research argues that Māori are claiming a virtual space for their whakapapa which this research has determined as ‘Ngāti Pukamata’.</p>