A Maori Futurist from New Zealand, currently working as a architect at Warren and Mahoney’s Auckland Studio. She has won the Silver Award for her Maorifuturism: The Digital, the Speculative and the Future project, which explores the future of Maori Architecture through a series of Speculative Images.
Her work is especially important because she strove to preserve the Maori traditions and ideals in her work, rejecting our conventional view of advanced technology as a western product. She also worked with her iwi, her tribe to create these images. This creates a community wide effort to synthesize Maori themes and ideals into the digital age and images that could help guide the Maori into the future. She is a pioneer of Polynesian Futurism, simple as that.
Link to her work: https://modos.ac.nz/projects/maorifuturism-the-digital-the-speculative-and-the-future
Self-described Space Maori. He works as a Freelance writer and has written on topics ranging from the MaoriFuturist Film Festival to Taika Waititi. Daniel Taipua explores the different ways that Maori Futurism can be expressed.
Though Daniel Taipua does not have much work to his name, he is important to the cause of Polynesian Futurism by working as a journalist and documenting various Maori Futurists. At such an early stage of the movement, we need someone to connect all the different people involved in Polynesian Futurism.
Link to his work: https://thespinoff.co.nz/author/dan-taipua/
A Maori Artist who works to decolonize the past. She doesn’t work with the commonly accepted form of science-fiction aka the future. Instead Lisa works with an alternative history around the Colonization of the Pacific and exploring the narratives around the Colonization.
Alternate History is a large genre in Speculative Fiction, which is one reason why I believe Lisa Reihana’s work is important to building Polynesian Futurism throughout the various genres. We cannot just have one version of Polynesian Futurism. It is important to have many different versions of Polynesian and Pacific Islander Futurism in order to truly investigate the many unique aspects of our culture. Also, it is impossible to imagine the future if we do not explore our past and understand how our people got to the present day. It is important work that we cannot ignore if we want to decolonize our future and the present.
Link to her work: http://www.inpursuitofvenus.com/
Polynesian Futurism 