Draft Five: August 2024

Author

Sam Hamilton

(b. 1984. Aotearoa New Zealand, of British colonial settler descent)

Copy Editing & Editorial Support (English version)

Ami Patel

Te reo Māori translation

Rhonda Tibble 

(Ngati Porou, Te Whanau a Apanui, and Ngati Kahungunu)

Commissioned cover art:

Vaimaila Urale

Support from

CNZ New Zealand Arts Council, Transmediale Art & Digital Culture Berlin, Creative Capital, Oregon Community Foundation Creative Heights Grant.

Contents

Pages 3-9

 (English version)

Te Moana Meridian: How the prime meridian shapes our world, and a case for relocating it. 

Pages 10-16

(Te reo Māori version)

Te Poutūmaro o Te Moana: Mā hea te Poutūmaro e whakaahuangia i tō tātou ao, me te take kia nukuhia i tōna wāahi tū ai.

The purpose of Te Moana Meridian is to develop and advance a proposal to the United Nations to formally relocate the international Prime Meridian from Greenwich, London, to its antipodean coordinates in Te Moana-nui-ā-Kiwa/the South Pacific Ocean. This document was developed from the initially incubated art project as a bonafide, peer-reviewed, and potentially applicable geopolitical policy proposal.

Te Moana Meridian: How the prime meridian shapes our world, and a case for relocating it.

Why move the Prime Meridian? 

Indigenous environmental justice academic, author, and scholar Dina Gilio-Whitaker states, “Climate change is not just a problem of technology or economics; but a problem of philosophy.” The failure to solve the multiple crises of climate change, war, income inequality, genocide, or ecocide is not because of humanity’s lack of technological, economic, or political means. It is because current systems of power have failed to invest enough in creative, critical, and social counterparts required to effectively steer them. Like a body without a brain, or a speeding car without a driver. Fixing the world’s problems requires first fixing how to think about them. There must be a process to redress, remedy, and where necessary, dismantle or replace ideological foundations framing the collective perception of these problems.

The Prime Meridian is an instrument that fundamentally affects how reality is perceived. It explicitly governs how humanity mutually measures global time and space. Although its physical location is technically arbitrary, metaphysically speaking, its location acts as a geopolitical lens through which the dominant worldview is framed. By fixing the Prime Meridian to the Royal Observatory of Greenwich, London has become that dominant lens. It implicitly implies that London - the heart of one of the most powerful colonial empires to ever exist - is the de facto center of the world. It frames a worldview that is white supremacist in nature. Which is why the Prime Meridian must be relocated. 

What actually is the Prime Meridian?

The Prime Meridian is commonly used as a reference point for collectively orienting geographic space and time. It is an imaginary line, drawn vertically from the North Pole to the South Pole, from which longitude is measured (horizontal east-west space). Paired with the equator, where latitude is measured (vertical north-south space), the two lines form the basis of the Global Positioning System (GPS). GPS is the most commonly used means of defining geographic space today. The Prime Meridian also regulates Coordinated Universal Time by designating Greenwich Mean Time as the place where all international time zones are measured from. The Prime Meridian implies there can be a center to the dimensions of space and time, and that center is in London.

Unlike latitude, which is determined by Earth’s geophysical rotation in space, and has defined beginning and ending points, no such natural conditions exist for determining longitude and time. Because of this, the Prime Meridian’s functionality relies not on where it actually is, but rather that, wherever it is, all of humanity simply agrees to use it. Its location is not a result of nature or science, but politics.

How did the Prime Meridian come to be?

The creation of the Prime Meridian can be traced back to the International Meridian Conference of 1884. Before 1884, there were potentially as many Prime Meridians as there were cultures, each reflecting unique and often ancient knowledge systems. But by 1884, the rapidly increasing rate of global interaction gave rise to a need for common reference points. Twenty-six nations gathered in Washington DC to determine where to locate a single Prime Meridian for international use. 

Many scholars working on this problem widely anticipated that the establishment of a single international Prime Meridian would not only resolve technical navigation issues but would also usher in a new era of global modernity. An era they asserted would be defined by the values of cosmopolitanism and humanitarian universalism. Although the ethics with which these proposed values were understood and applied are, in the context of the prime meridian, too narrow and biased to be fit for purpose, the “universal” prime meridian of today has become a technical keystone for many of the global systems that, for better or worse, much of humanity relies on. 

Scholars at the 1884 Conference knew the placement of the meridian was innately political and were vocally explicit that its location must be determined by the highest degree of political neutrality possible. Among the locations considered were The Great Pyramids of Egypt, the Canary Islands, several major European observatories, and Jerusalem, which was then known only as the capital of the multi-religious state of Palestine. One proposal put forth by Canadian scholar and principal progenitor of the Prime Meridian, Sandford Flemming, received robust attention: to locate the Prime Meridian in the Pacific Ocean/Te Moana-nui-ā-Kiwa, avoiding land and nationalistic territories altogether.

However, proceedings inevitably succumbed to the commercial, industrial, militaristic, and political interests of the nations who financed the conference. Despite decades of scholarly debate centering the importance of political neutrality, all but three of the conference delegates voted to affix the Prime Meridian to the Airy Transit Circle telescope at the Royal Observatory of Greenwich, one of the most prized institutes of the British Empire, which is one of the most politically not neutral global empires to exist.

The rationale was that the Royal Observatory of Greenwich possessed the greatest degree of accuracy in observing and measuring longitude. This claim, however, is riddled with dangerous colonial paradoxes: that to observe a thing grants authority over it; that colonial authority begets moral authority; and that nature is subservient to the will of men. Rather than delivering a prime meridian that serves all humanity, the conference delivered a prime meridian that serves the British Empire’s quest for global colonial hegemony.

The colonial machinations become evident when analyzing the conference's delegation. Setting aside the flawed means of using nation-states for democratic consensus, only 26 out of the 128 nations that existed in 1884 participated in the conference, weakening claims of international consensus. A marginal degree of geographic and cultural diversity was reflected in the list of participating nations. But only two of them were not under substantial influence of European colonial powers: Japan and the Ottoman Empire. While not European, the two were still prolific imperial colonizers. Despite the post-enlightenment posturing, the conference was all but destined to deliver an elite minority ruling that promoted a colonial and white supremacist worldview. 

This worldview is associated with the extensive, unilateral, genocidal, and ecocidal extraction of human and environmental resources for capital gain, creating or rapidly accelerating many of the crises humanity faces today. The Prime Meridian has become an instrument for expanding British colonial hegemony over vast swaths of the physical planet, and over humanity’s collective metaphysical orientation to space and time. It unnecessarily and unjustly severs communities from their Indigenous knowledge systems. Just as all the roads once led to and concentrated Rome's power, all GPS and UTC coordinates today point to and concentrate London’s power.

Today, the GPS and USC are technically determined not by the Greenwich Prime Meridian, as managed by the Royal Observatory of Greenwich, but by its successor, the IERS Reference Meridian, which is managed by the International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service (IERS). The IERS was established in 1987 by the International Astronomical Union and the International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics. The Royal Observatory of Greenwich claims this absolves them of any contemporary critiques of the Prime Meridian.

But beyond the technical, managerial, and minuscule geographic changes, the two reference lines remain contextually indistinct. Besides the upgraded technology and nomenclature, they not only continue to reinforce the same geopolitical power dynamics, they also, in tandem, deepen their hegemony. Any legitimate differences between them are likely as insignificant as the actual geographic difference between the two points, which takes approximately 74 seconds to traverse on foot. The IERS Reference Meridian sits not just in the figurative shadow of the Royal Observatory of Greenwich, but unceremoniously in its literal shadow as well. Nothing tangibly marks the IERS Reference Meridian. Meanwhile, the Royal Observatory of Greenwich continues to publicly proclaim itself the "Home of the Prime Meridian”. Therefore, unless specified, this document considers both lines as functionally the same thing.

The Prime Meridian’s colonial hegemony is evident. In the public psyche, how time and space are reckoned is more or less considered a law of nature. There are only two other known critiques of this situation - artist Rasheedah Philip's 2022 Black Quantum Futurism project Time Zone Protocols, and New York Times journalist Mike Ive’s 2024 article The International Date Line Is ‘Pretty Arbitrary.’ But it is not a law of nature. It is a status quo that is systemically maintained to this day.

After being invited to participate in this project, The Royal Observatory of Greenwich procedurally stonewalled it and had its legally obtained Greenwich Park film permits revoked. The Observatory attempted to silence the project because it objects to the theoretical premise. These actions exhibit an unwillingness to address an ongoing complicity within Britain’s imperialist history and an intent to protect its colonial legacy. 

So, what can be done about it?

To quote Māori Studies scholar Dr. Daniel Hikuroa, “The difference between legal personhood for a river and a corporation is intention and purpose”. Such a framing allows us to understand that, with the Prime Meridian, the problem is not the instrument itself, but rather how it's used, by whom, and for what purpose. This distinction allows us to see a third means of confronting problematic issues beyond the drastic binary approaches of abolishment or maintaining the status quo. These means are often softer, but ultimately more constructive.

A wider contextual view offers a third pathway toward remedying the woes of the Prime Meridian: relocate it. Relocating the Prime Meridian won't solve the world's problems, nor will it solve the inherent tendency to privilege one place over all others. But, depending on where the Prime Meridian is relocated, it may radically alter its metaphysical and geopolitical agency. Alongside other measures, it would provide humanity a means for navigating beyond the turbulent present toward a better future not beholden to the trappings of the past. The Prime Meridian could offer a common-use means of orienting global time and space that defers not to colonial authority, but the authority of nature, and our mutual interdependence within it. 

Where should the Prime Meridian be relocated?

From a legal standpoint, there’s only one political jurisdiction where it’s possible to locate a single Prime Meridian without privileging one nation over another: the high seas. A territory beyond nationhood that covers roughly half the planet's surface that the United Nations calls a common heritage of mankind. The UN also recently unanimously agreed to the UN High Seas Treaty, a landmark piece of international legislation to protect the high seas, providing an effective legal model for governing our global commons through global consensus.

Regardless of where one lives, humankind existentially relies on the world’s oceans. The oceans connect, feed, and fundamentally regulate all global systems for humanity’s survival. To paraphrase from Caribbean poet Derek Wilcox, the high seas are the truest archivists of history. Through the ocean, humankind can know itself. Relocating the Prime Meridian to the ocean would return it to a collective center of gravity.  It would affirm the primacy of nature and promote more oceanic ways of thinking - such as the concept of “vā”, or “teu le vā”, which the Sāmoan scholar, Dr. Melani Anae, describes as the practical nurturing of relational space. An “and/and” rather than an “either/or” way of thinking about global relationality. 

An oceanic Prime Meridian would also symbolically assert that “the center of the world” is everywhere - and that humanity’s survival depends on mutual prosperity. Technically speaking, relocating the Prime Meridian is a relatively simple, safe, and quick task. The challenge is in making the decision and equitably building the global consensus required to ethically and effectively implement such a thing. The only means of achieving this kind of global diplomacy today is The United Nations General Assembly. An imperfect vessel, but vastly better than what existed during the 1884 Conference of the Prime Meridian. Furthermore, the fact that the current Prime Meridian was never formally adopted by most of the world’s nations further validates calling the UN’s attention to the Prime Meridian’s need for revision.

This is why we hereby call on the United Nations General Assembly to draft the following Resolution:

Resolution point 1:

Relocate the Prime Meridian as soon as diplomatically possible without compromising strict multilaterally defined ethical due diligence.

Resolution point 2: 

To the antipodean coordinates of its current position,  a place as geographically far and metaphysically antithetical to Greenwich, London as is possible. A place external to all national territorial boundaries: the open waters of Te Moana-nui-ā-Kiwa / the South Pacific Ocean; a place explicitly identified as located within the jurisdiction of the Global Commons as defined under the UN’s recently ratified international High Seas Treaty. 

Resolution point 3: 

Designate a minimum 50-kilometer radius area around said coordinates a UNESCO World Heritage site and ecological sanctuary with full legal personhood status under international law.

Resolution point 4:

The Prime Meridian’s geopolitical privileging of one place over others is either A) actively rendered politically moot; B) inversed; or C) repurposed to expressly privilege something unanimously agreed to be of equal value and benefit to all humanity.

Resolution point 6: 

With the explicit provision that the Prime Meridian is never assumed or presented as anything but a complimentary common system for reckoning time and space, and is not superior to, and should never be used to invalidate or annul any other existent spatiotemporal systems and modalities.

Resolution point 7: 

The UN aims to achieve this by November 2034, the 150th anniversary of the establishment of the current Prime Meridian. 

We propose that this process be administered by a new UNESCO agency developed in partnership with the UN Pacific Island Forum, the UN BBNJ High Ambition Coalition, a consortium of non-military civil astronomical observatories, and - as the traditional cultural custodians of the region proposed for the new Prime Meridian - The New Zealand Māori Council.

Funding administrative support should be supplied solely by the United Nations with the proposed addition of funds from The United Kingdom as reparations for its 140-year colonial appropriation of humanity’s shared orientation to time and space.

How would an oceanic lens reshape humanity's worldview?

Te Moana Meridian offers a vision for a Prime Meridian anchored in Te Moana-nui-ā-Kiwa/the South Pacific Ocean, liberated from terrestrial austerity altogether. A Prime Meridian that would reflect the empirical reality that time is not absolute, but dilates fluidly in relation to mass and energy. To paraphrase NOAA climate physicist Nadir Jeevanjee, "A multitude of temporalities exist between the various depths of the world’s oceans". A Prime Meridian that, like the oceans, is as integral to humanity’s future as it has been to its past. It is both singular and plural, local and global. 

The fact that it’s practically impossible to erect any conventional monuments in the ocean is but one example of how relocating it would counteract the Prime Meridian’s problematic tendencies and bias it toward a more outward-looking and anti-hierarchical modus operandi. For the ocean is the monument, a visceral reminder that humanity’s survival depends on connection, not division. To avoid drowning, become the ocean.

Te Moana Meridian

Ko te pūtake o tēnei kaupapa he whakawhanake me te whakaterea i te tono ki te Rūnanga Whakakotahi i Ngā Iwi o te Ao kia ōkawangia te nuku atu i te Pou Tūmaro o Ao mai i Greenwhich, Rānana ki ōna taunga tukutuku kōaro i te Moana Nui a Kiwa. 

Ahakoa i whakapoapoa hei kaupapa mahi Toi, he mea whakamanangia i te ao tukupu, he mea i arotakengia e te hunga matatau me ngā kaupapa here tōrangapū -ā-whenua tūtohu.

Te Poutūmaro o Te Moana: Mā hea te Poutūmaro e whakaahuangia i tō tātou ao, me te take kia nukuhia i tōna wāahi tū ai.

Kia ahatia te nuku i te Pou Tūmaro.

Hei tā Dino Gilio-Whitaker, “ Ko te āhuarangi ehara i te raruraru o te hangarau o te ōhanga; engari he raruraru nō te rapunga whakaaro.”Paheke ana te hīraurau i ngā mōrearea o te āhuarangi, te pakanga, te whaimoni, te tōrite, te patu iwi, te patu taiao, kauaka tō te mea kua kore he hāngarau,  he ōhanga, he tōrangapū rānei, hoi i te mea kāre i haumi nui atu i roto i te auahatanga, te kakawa me ngā hoa hapori e tareka ana te hautu tōtika i a rātou. Pēnei ana he tinana me te kore roro, te motokā tere te haere me te kore whai taraiwa. Ki te whakatika i ngā raruraru o te ao me timata ki te whakatika i te āhua o te whai whakaaro. Me tirohia te whakaoranga, hei rongoā, ā, ki aua wāhi me whakahekea, me whakahou ngā āria whakaaro nānā i pakitaha atu i tērā i rongona e te tūmata whānui.

Pēnei nā he rākau ka tohutohungia i te kawanatanga o te ira tāngata māna e ine i te wā me te ātea, koia tō te Pou Tūmaro e whakaawengia ana i tērā i kite, i tērā i rongo. Ahakoa tana nohonga he ariā whakaaro noa, koia ka tū hei mātai matawhenua, matatōrangpū mā reira te tirohanga whakatūanui i taitapa. Mā te whakatū i te Pou Tūmaro ki te Te Whare Ariki Tirohanga Mātai o Greenwhich, Ko Ranana kē taua whatu. He whatu ka tohua ko Ranana - te ngakau o tētahi o ngā mana nui o ngā emepaea koroniara i ora atu - koia anō te pito matua whangai o te ao. Koia ka taitapa i te tirohanga ao he kaikiri mā i tōna iho matua. Koinei te take me nuku atu.

He aha hoki tēnei mea a te Pou Tūmaro?

Tērā te kōrero, ehara i te mea nui atu i te tauira ka tohungia. Ko te pūnaha mātai matawhenua taunga ahuroa he pūnaha o te ao ka tautuhia, ka inea, ka whakaputatia I ngā matawhenua taunga ahuroa ki te whakaahua, ki te ine, ki te whakakōrero I ngā matawhenua taungaroa mā ngā ahopae, me ngā ahoroa, hei ine I te ātea o te ahu whakateraki ki te tonga o te weheruatanga o te ao ahu whakaterāwhiti ki te uru o te Poutūmaro tuatahi. Tapiri atu ki te ātea o te mataiwhenua, ko tētahi atu mahi a te Poutūmaro koia ko te whakakotahi i te taima hurinoa te ao, ko Greenwhich tērā te kaikaute taima, te wāhi i inengia nga matawā o te ao. Ko te Pou Tūmaro tēra hei pito ki roto o Rānana.

Tō te mea kāre kē he aroaro whenua hei whakakitekite i a ia, ko te taunga o te Poutūmaro tuatahi o te ao he mea hanga noa, pēnei ana ko hea, ko hea I runga I te mata o Papatūānuku, ko te mea nui kia whakaaengia te katoa ki te whakamahia. Ko tana wāhi nohanga ehara I te mea nō te ao tūroa, engari he mea tōrangapū.

I pēhea te Pou Tūmaro kua tae mai?

I te tau kotahi mano waru rau waru tekau mā whā I rūmene mai ngā iwi rua tekau mā ono ki Washington DC ki te whakatau I te nohonga o tētahi pou tūmaro motuhake I te ao. Mua mai i te tau kotahi mano waru rau waru tekau mā whā he nui tonu ngā pou tūmaro horapa te ao.  Heoi, nā te pikitanga o ngā tūhonohono mā runga i te haerere-ā-whenua me te ohanga-ā-ao, me te korenga o tētahi rautaki hei whakakite i te ahoroa i puta mai te raruraru nui, I hua mai te tini o ngā wananga huri noa te ao mā runga tēnei kaupapa.  

Mō te nuinga o ngā tāngata matatau, nā rātou I ākina I te kaupapa o te Pou Tūmaro kotahi o te ao, ko te whakaaro kei muri I tana whakatū koia ko te pōhiri mai I tētahi ngaru hou he whakahouhia I te ao hou, nā rātou anō I whakatenatena, me whakaahuahia e te mana ōrite, e te mana tangata tohatoha ratonga tā ngā matea. Ko te iho matua o tēnei whakapae me whakatūria mā te kore whai hereherenga ki tētahi tangata, tē tahi whenua, kia tōrangpū kore te noho. Whai muri mai ka hoki atu ki tēnei pēhanga a tāua, heoi anō, e tika ana ki te kī ko te “Pou Tūmaro o tēnei rangi he pohatu hangarau mō te tini o ngā pūnaha ao o te ira tangata o naianei ka pau te kaha te whakawhirinakitia.

Ko te Pou Tūmaro ka noho hei ratonga mā ngā iwi o te ao hei kaupapa manaaki I te ira tangata o te ao anō hoki. Mā te whai atu I ēnei whainga pono, he nui tonu ngā wāhi I whakatauhia pēnei I ngā toka tū koraha o Ihipa, Hiruharama, ngā moutere o Canary, me ētahi atu whare matai whetu rarahi. Ko tētahi tono I whakawhiwhia I te tirohanga roa, tirohanga whānui, I whakatakotoria e Sanford Fleming te kaipūtaiao rongonui, mangai nui, kia whakanohia I te Pou Tūmaro ki te Moana-nui-ā-Kiwa hei kaupare atu I te whenua me aua rohenga whenua ā-motu katoa. 

Ahakoa rā, ko ngā aronganui o aua whenua rua tekau mā ono nāna I tautoko, I tonoa a rātou taraketi pōti ki te hui nui whakamutunga I te tau kotahi mano waru rau waru tekau mā whā ko te ohanga, te ahumahi, te tūngārahu me te tōrangapu te takenga. Ko ēnei take I tahuritia, I hunaia I te rakau a Tū hei ariā pūtaiao herenga kore hei huanga mā rātou anō.Hāunga, te nui o ngā tau tītohea I te kaupapa, ka mahue kia toru anake ngā māngai taraketi kāre I pōtitia me whakapiri atu te Pou Tūmaro hou o te ao ki te Whare Mātai Whetu a Te Whare Ariki ki Greenwich, Rānana, I te mea “ I a ia te tiketiketanga o te ōrau totika ka kitea ka inengia I te ahoroa” 

Ko te oroko whakaaro kei muri tēnei whakaatu koia ko tā te Tirohanga Mātai o Greenwhich i a rātou kē te koingo a tau hei titiro, hei ine i te taunga ahoroa. Muinga ana te kokoraho nei i ngā mōrearea koaro a te koroniara: ki te titiro atu ki tētahi mana whakahaere ki runga i tētahi atu mea, koia ka riro pū taua mana koroniara ki te mana whakatau matatika, mā reira taua āhua rā e noho whakararo atu i te hiahia a te tangata. Ka mahue ki te whakatū he poutūmaro ka noho hei pononga mā te ira tangata horapa, hei tā te huihuinga i puta kē ake he poutūmaro ka whakakīa i te whakataukī a Pierre Bourdieu, “ Ko te whakakotahitanga ka ea i te moni mō te hunga whakatuanui” mā roto i te noho pononga ki tā te Emepaea o Piritania me onā āwhero mo te whakatuanui - ā - mātauranga, koroniara o te ao.

Me hoki atu ki te hui nui nei, me ui atu tāua, I pēwhea te whakatūtukihanga o te whakaaetanga a ngā iwi o te ao I kokorahotia e te kaupapa nei? Kia timataria, I te kotahi rau rua tekau mā waru iwi o te Ao, ko te rua tekau mā ono noa iho I whakakanohitia I te hui nui rā, ko ētahi I pakari ake te tū I ētahi atu (koia pū ko Piritania rāua ko Amerika). Hatia, he paku noa te rerekētanga o a rātou noho matawhenua  rātou I whakakanohi mai, tērā pea pai kē atu ko te tino kaiwhakaatu o te pono o te kōrero o aua iwi rua tekau mā ono, kotahi anake ka tareka te kokorahotia ehara rātou I te iwi whakatūānui pēnei I te mana koronitanga nui tonu, ko te whenua o Switzerland tērā,  nāna I utungia te hui nui rā, me te kaupapa whakatūānui koronitanga o Uropi rahi rawa. 

Ko te tirohanga-a-ao nei ka tūhonohia atu ki ngā toronga, he whatu kotahi te titiro, he patu iwi, he patu tangata, taiao anō hoki kia rewa te hunga whai rawa. Nā reira ko te nuinga o ngā haepapa i hangaia hei patu i te ira tangata nāna anō i whakakanohi. Mā te punga i te Pou Tūmaro  ki Greenwhich, Rānana - te pokapū o te koroniara o te tangata whai putea i te Emepaea i ora atu ai - kua toka ake te ui makihoi a nāna tūturu tēnei tirohanga-a-ao. He tirohanga -a-ao tēnei kua whakamahia i te poutūmaro hei rākau whakawhānui i te whakatūanui koroniara o Piritānia ki runga te tini maha o ngā whenua o Papatūānuku, engari  ki runga i te ira tāngata horapa i te wā  me te ātea a wairua anō hoki. Tō te mea he rite ngā ara katoa ka anga atu ki Roma me tōna whakawhaititinga ki te mana o Roma, ko te GPS me te CUT (ara te tētēkura hou o GMT) ka hangai te tohu atu ki Rānana me te pungatia o te mana whakatuānui a te karauna o Piritania.

I tēnei rangi, ko te GPS me te PSC he mea ka tautohu a hangarau nei e te IERS toro tūmaro, he hangarau tuku heke o te Pou Tūmaro i Greenwhich ā IERS te whakahaere. Hei tā te Royal Observatory mā tēnei ka ngahoro te haepapa ki runga i a rātou- mā reira kua kore he raru - me tēnei arotakenga. Auare ake, 1) ko ngā wāhi o te toro tūmaro me te pou tūmaro he piringa tata rawa ka tarea te maka pohatu i waenganui i a rāua; 2) ko te kikokikotanga me te wāhi tōrangapū o te pou tūmaro he whakarewa i te mana o Te Ao Uru e kore e turaki ki raro; 3) ko te Royal Observatory of Greenwhich e kaha parani ana i a ia anō koia te kainga tuturu o te Pou tūmaro, nā reira e hinga ana ngā kokoraho.

I tēnei rā, ko te whakamana i te whakatūanui koroniara he mea ariroa. I te mea ki te ariā o tumatawhānui, ko te wā me te ātea he mea whakatau hei ture taiao. E rua anake nga kaiwhakatakē e mōhio ana ki tēnei āhuatanga - ko te kaitoi a Rasheedah Philip's 2022 Black Quantum Futurism project Time Zone Protocols, rāua ko  New York Times journalist Mike Ive’s 2024 article The International Date Line Is ‘Pretty Arbitrary.’ Ehara i te mea he ture taiao. He pūnaha whakamana i rautakitia tae noa ki tēnei rangi.

Whai muri mai te tono ki te uru ki roto i te kaupapa nei, hei tā te Royal Observatory of Greenwich (He Roopu Tiketike no te Emepaea o Piritania) i ara ki te turaki Te Moana Meridian me tōna mana whakahaere, nā rātou ano i tiki i te whakaaetanga-a-ture mai te Paaka o Greenwhich kia kaua e whakaatungia. (Ko te whakaaetanga nei he mea ka aheia te hopu kiriata o te Māmā me tōna tamāhine e mahi ana i tētahi wāhanga poto nei me ngā  anga moana i waho i te whare mātai whetu) Ko ēnei mahinga nā te Whare Mātai Whetu ka whakaatu i tō rātou kore hiahia ki te tiro atu ki ō rātou ake piritahi ki te hitoria o Piritania me te hiahia kia tau tiakina i tō rātou koroniaratanga hei taonga tuku heke.

Me aha rā tātou?

Hei tā te Ihorei o Te Mātauranga Māori a Dr. Daniel Hikuroa, “Ko te rerekētanga o te tangata ture mo te awa me te kaporeihana koia ko te takune me te kaupapa.” Mā tēnei tirohanga ka mōhio tāua, ehara ko te Pou Tūmaro te raruraru, engari kē ko wai ka whakamahia, ki a wai, me te take hoki. Ko te rerekē o te paitini me te rongoā koia ko te horopaki. Nā reira, mā kōnei ake e kitengia atu i te tuatoru o ngā mahinga ka tukitukingia ka whakararurarungia apiti atu i ngā kōarotanga whakangaro, whakapupuri rānei i te mana kua tohua.

Ki te whakawhānui atu i te horopaki o te tirohanga kia puta he huarahi tuatoru hei whakaora i nga tūraruraru o te Pou Tūmaro: Nuku atu ia. Mehemea ka hunuku te Pou Tūmaro e kore e whakaoti ngā raruraru katoa o te ao. Kāre kē pea e whakaoti te whakatū ko tētahi wāhi nui kē atu tōna mana i tētahi atu. Engari, ko te wāhi ka hunukutia, mā reira kē pea ka whakawhana tōna wairua me tōna e whakaratoa mā te ira tāngata he take ka arahitia tua atu i ngā tapokopokotanga o inaianei ahu whakamua atu kāre e mauheretia ki ngā takanga o te wā kua pahure. He mea e māmā ai te whakakite i te wā o te ao me te ātea kauaka ka tahuri atu ki te mana o te koroniaratanga, engari mā roto kē ake i te mana o te taiao, me tō tātou nohonga ngatahi atu tētahi ki roto i te tētahi atu.

Ko te pātai tonu ia, ki whea ake hunukutia te Pou Tūmaro nei?

Mehemea i tipakongia ki te whakakī i te mana tuatahi o te pou tūmaro kia noho ki runga i te tiketike o te noho tōrangapu kore , kotahi anake te rohenga a tōrangapu, a ture, a ariā whakaaro: ko te “Moana Teitei”. Koinei te taitara ka hoatu ki nga rohenga moana ka ahu whakamuri i nga rohenga a Whenua. Ko te moana teitei ka kapi i te 50% orau o te Aorangi ko te Kotahitanga o Ngā Iwi o Te Ao ka karangangia i a rātou ko “ Te Taunga Ira Tangata Noho Noa” Ko ēnei rohenga nō nā tata nei kua rewaina hei kongakonga whakameremere i roto i ngā ture o te ao nāna te tautuhi, e haumaru: tērā ka kīngia “Te Tīriti o te Moana Teitei”.

Ahakaoa kie whea tātou e noho ana, ko tātou tonu ka whakamanawatia e ngā moana katoa o te ao. Mā rātou anō hoki, mātou e whangai ki te kai, me te whakarato o mātou pūnaha-ā-ao te take e ora ai tātou. Hei whakakopani ake i tā Derek Wilcox, he kairuri nō te Carribean, koia rātou ko ngā whata kainga hitoria tuturu. Mā rātou anō, mātou e mōhio ko wai tātou. Ki te āta nukungia i te Pou Tūmaro ki te moana, koia te whakahoki atu i a tātou ki te pito tō-a-Papa. He Pou Tūmaro ka whakahoki ake I te mana o te wā, o te wāhi ki te Taiao. Ka whakatenatena i ngā mātauranga o te moana, tōna mōhiotanga, tōna hanga. Hei kume i te aronga ‘ hei pito o te ao hou’ māna e poipoi, ana, hei aha atu ngā kanohitanga o te hono whakawhānaungatanga o te ao. Ngā Ariā whakaaro whakatiketike pēnei i tā te ao Hamoa me tōna tikanga anō o te “teu le vā’ (Nā Dr, Melani Anae). He tapiri, he tapiri rānei ehara ko tērā me tēna e ara whakaaro mō tēnei mea te whakawhanaungatanga o te ao.

Ko te Pou Tūmaro nohia a moana nei he mea ka tūtohu atu” ko te pito o te ao” kei ngā wāhi katoa - me ngā kanoi ora ka noho piri tahi tētahi ki tētahi. Hei kupu-a-kaupapa nei ko te Pou Tūmaro he mea māmā noa iho, he haumaru, he tere ki whakamahi. Ko te wero kei roto i te whakatau kia whakatutukingia. Ki ōrite te hanga me te whakaae ngatahi ati o te ao mā roto i ngā matatika ki te whakarite i aia tonu. Kotahi tonu te huarahi e whakaea ana te kaupapa tūmatawhānui whakahangahanga nei ki roto i te Rūnanga Whakakotahi i ngā Iwi o te Ao. He waka pokapoka, heoi pai kē atu i tērā i tū i mua rā i te tau 1884 He Whakaminenga mō te Pou Tūmaro. Mā reira anō te take e whakakahangia kia karangatia te Rūnanga Whakakotahi i Ngā Iwi o te Ao ki te whakatika i te kaupapa nei a te Pou Tūmaro.

Koia pū te take e karangangia ana te Rūnanga Whakakotahi i Ngā Iwi o te Ao 

Kia tuhia te whakataunga e whai ake nei;

Whakataunga Tuatahi:

Nukuhia te Pou Tūmaro kia tere rawa hei te whakaae takawaenga,

Kia kore e whakamōrea tōna tikanga me ngā whakaaetanga tautohu matatika a ture nei.

Whakatuanga Tuarua:

Ko ngā matatohu o te nohonga o ināianei, he wāhi mamao rawa atu a matawhenua nei, a wairua anō hoki e āpiti atu ki a Greenwhich. Rānana rawa; he wāhi whakawaho atu i ngā taiwhenua katoa o te ao: ki ngā wai whakawaho o Te Moana- nui-a-Kiwa; he wāhi whakatungia ana ko roto i te Whakaratonga a Ao me ana ture kua whakamanangia i raro i te UN nā rātou tērā i whakaaengia ki roto i te Tīriti Moana Teitei a Ao.

Whakataunga Tuatoru:

A hei pou tūmaro ka noho hei porohita taiāwhio mā te 50 kiromita huri rauna hei wāhi noho hei mātaitai tiaki moana a ao, a ngātahitia i te pou tūmaro anō hoki, kia noho hei wāhi tapu a te Unesco World Heritage Site, Te mana rite a ture ki te mana o te rangata, me ngā hua nui, ngā mōtika, ngā haumarutanga mōna anō, ka ahei te whakawhiwhia.

Whakataunga Tuawhā:

Ki tētahi wāhi kauaka e tarea te whakatau I tētahi nui atu, I tētahi atu e ai te tatanga ā matawhenua, a tōrangapū rānei. 

Whakataunga Tuarima:

Pēna he whakaratonga torotika atu kia kaua e noho ko te Pou Tūmaro hei pōhehetanga, hei whakaaturanga noho noa iho hei pūnaha whakatōpū taurite mo te wā me te ātea. Kaua hei patu,hei whakaiti, hei whakakore, tērā ka whakararangi tētahi atu rohenga, ahurea o tētahi hapori mehemea he mea hanga mo te wā, kāore rānei; 

Whakataunga Tuaono:

Me whakaea tēnei whainga e te UN mā te Noema 2034, te rā whakamaumaharatanga kotahi rau rima tekau tau o te whakatū i te Pou Tūmaro e tū ana ināianei.

Ko te mana whakahaere, whakarite ka tukuna mā tētahi  roopu hou o te Unesco ka whakawhanake me ana hoa haere kia ōrite te mana waenga i a Unesco, UN Pacific Island Forum, UN BBNJ High Ambition Coalition, he whakaranunga kore ope taua matai whetu, hei tangata whenua, kaitiaki o te tono hou mo te wāhi noho o te pou tūmaro, Te Kaunihera Māori o Aotearoa/ The New Zealand Māori Council.

Te tahua moni me te whakarite moni ka hoatungia e te Kotahitanga o Ngā Iwi o Te Ao, ​​me Ingarani hei paremata.

Mā hea te whatu moana e tarai atu kia whakahouhia te tirohanga ao o te ira tangata?

Te Poutūmaro o Te Moana: He pou tūmaro ka pungatia ki Te Moana - nui - ā- Kiwa. He Pou Tūmaro kua wetekina i te papa wheuka katoatia. Hei tā te moana he whakaata mai I te whakatatare ko te taima ehara kau I te motuhake engari he kūtorotoro, he kōtētē kia nui ake ki tā te papatipu, e taunakitia ana e te marama me tōna awenga I runga I ngā tai o te moana. Hei whakarāpopotonga nā Nadir Jeevanjee. “He mahamaha ngā nohanga ao ka noho i waenganui i ngā hohonutanga o ngā moana o te ao”. Hei Pou Tūmaro pēnei nei, i ngā moana ka noho takitahi, takitini; a rohe, a ao; noho noa iho me te noho roa; a onamata, a anamata. 

Ko te meka tonu he mea uaua rawa ki te whakatū he pohatu whakanui i roto i te moana koira ko tētahi tauira o te hunuku ka koarongia o ngā take tūraru me ngā aukati aronui ati ki te titiro whakawaho me te whakahekea i nga whakahaere whakamanamana. Ko te moana tonu te whakamaharatanga. He pou tūmaro ka ākina i a tātou ki maharatia ko tō tātou oranga ka noho ki runga tērā ka honohia, kaua ko tērā ka wetekina. Kia kaua e toromia, me moana te hanga. 

Te Poutūmaro o Te Moana.