Apple recently posted a tour of the forthcoming iPhone. Watching the presentation I was surprised to see one of the default wallpapers is the face of a tiki (a wood carving of the human figure).
The Maori style is typically curvilinear (most Polynesian art is rectilinear in style). The face in the wallpaper looks very similar to the one on the New Zealand 10 cent coin:
Wallpapers on the iPhone (© Apple, Inc.)
It's a bit hard to make out much detail in the screen capture. Here is a wall figure (representing an ancestor) from inside Tokomaru Bay Marae which better demonstrates the intricacy of many such designs:
Maori ancestor (© B McKenzie, available here)
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I was interested to get my new i-touch and see the whakairo featured alongside the six other masterpieces of world art. I am wondering which wharenui the carving is from and how Apple came to access the image - they are obviously making ,money off it and I wonder if the whanau who have their tupuna/ancestor represented in this way are aware it is being used for commercial purposes by one of the largest corporations in the world?
Do you reckon Apple would respond if we asked them for more information?
The source of the image is probably a stock photography library Manu. Another way of looking at things is that, by its distribution, it promotes Maori craftsmanship to the world and celebrates the sharing of culture.
That is another way of looking at it Bruce - some people call that cultural appropriation and another example of colonisation and expropriating intellectual property rights that some people think are important to protect - especially when it comes to new technologies! The point is there is a moral, if not a legal, obligation on companies (and individuals) who use objects and ideas created by others for their own purposes.
- Manu
The moral obligations, from my perspective are: (1) to check with the owners of the object/idea as to whether one can use it - usually this would include providing information on how it would be used is important; and (2) if commerical gain is intended what, if any, remuneration the creators/owners of the object/idea wish to receive in acknowledgement of their property rights.
Thanks for sharing Manu. You may be aware of a related contemporary debate; Egypt wants royalties on reproductions of antiquities such as the pyramids and Sphinx. Are these cultural relics solely Egyptian heritage, or is that heritage what you might term "common" to all humanity? Closer to home, do origin legends "belong" exclusively to an iwi, the wholly modern concept of the Maori Nation, the People of New Zealand, the People of the Pacific, or humanity? Such questions are of course a matter of perspective, and unfortunately the answers are often clouded by issues of financial gain. Morality is never absolute, and all ideas ultimately trace their descent to the experiences and accomplishments of numerous predecessors. It's a pickle.