Author: KiwiRPG Official

Kia ora e hoa mā.

With the race towards the end of the calendar year, it seems appropriate for Kēmu Whakatau O Aotearoa to start thinking about the next one, and more specifically the next end of year, albeit the Māori one. Stick with me, it’ll make sense shortly.

The tent pole event in the KiwiRPG calendar is KiwiRPG week. We have done two now and they are always roaring successes. They bring eyes onto our little corner of the hobby from far and near, with media attention and community spotlights on all of the excellent creations Aotearoa contributes to our great hobby. KiwiRPG week formed the nucleus of Kēmu Whakatau O Aotearoa in many ways. It is an amazing opportunity for us all to celebrate Kiwi creations unapologetically.

When the committee sat down to start preliminary planning of the next KiwiRPG week, naturally we turned our thoughts towards when to hold it. Previously it had been in June and May before that. Dates chosen for various reasons. This year we wanted that reason to be one that is just as special to Aotearoa as it is to KiwiRPG. So we decided to coincide the week with Matariki, the Māori new year. Hopefully the opening paragraph is starting to make sense.

Matariki is a sacred time across polynesia, and for most Māori iwi. It is the time where its namesake star cluster rises in the eastern sky, and welcomes in the new year. It is a time we associate with endings and beginnings, life and death. It is a time where we come together to plan, to enjoy one another’s company and to feast upon the bounty of our harvests. To look back at the year that’s been and forward to the year ahead. It is a time to be introspective but ambitious and full of potential.

What better time for our community to come together, unite in voice and action to spring into the new year with pride, mana and something to show the world?

With this said, I would like to confirm that the official dates for KiwiRPG week 2024 are Sunday 23rd of June through to Saturday 29th of June. This obviously coincides with the Matariki holiday on Friday 28th. We will close out the year and welcome in the new one in the way only Kēmu Whakatau O Aotearoa can.

Thank you for your time to read this. As this calendar year counts down, put some mind towards how you want to welcome in Matariki next year and know we are all here with you.

Kia pai tō koutou rā
Liam Stevens
Kēmu Whakatau O Aotearoa Chair 

As KiwiRPG week 2023 comes to an end, our committee chair Liam Stevens writes to our community and also those from all around the world who have turned their thoughts to Kēmu Whakatau O Aotearoa this week.

The logo for Kēmu Whakatau o Aotearoa. The group's name is on the right hand side, along with #KiwiRPG. On the left is a K stylised to be reminiscent of Māori carving and tattooing practices.

Kia ora e te whanau!

KiwiRPG 2023 is coming to an end, and what a week it has been! We have seen a barrage of awesome KiwiRPG content, all across live streams, podcasts, game bundles, media etc. It has been an excellent week to be a part of and makes me so proud to sit within this community alongside you all. We truly are a community that performs at a world class level and can stand to get the world’s attention.

Full confession; I did not do a hell of a lot this KiwiRPG week. The joys of being a civil servant in election year has seen me consumed in work and work related travel to breaking point. Thankfully I needn’t have worried. KiwiRPG is greater than the sum of all of its parts, and so many of you stepped up to the plate and delivered throughout the week. The way everyone was able to come in and do their bit made everything come together smoothly and I am seeing all over the place nothing but positive responses to our collective celebration.

It’s hard to believe that our first KiwiRPG was just a year ago. And what a year! In that time we have organized, made KiwiRPG an actual thing as opposed to an idea, and have seen so many new people come into the fold. Hopefully that growth continues, and with it we see a more diverse range of voices and ideas enter the fold too.

So as the week winds down we are now planning to take time to consider how it went, what could be done better, what opportunities were missed and what should be further developed. We expect it will take several years before KiwiRPG week reaches its full potential so until then we will continue to analyze and learn from these sorts of event’s. I fully expect the community to be involved in that discussion. So get to thinking about what you think worked, what didn’t, what we could do better and what we missed out on. In Aotearoa we know you must look to the past to look forward, so let us all do that.

In the coming weeks here in Aotearoa we will be coming into Matariki, which is a time for reflection on the year that has been and planning for the year ahead. I encourage you to think back to where we were last year, a small discord group full of enthusiasm and hype to get stuck, and look at us now. Then imagine where you want us to be next year. Hold on to that thought, hold it near and dear but share it too. Dreams and aspirations work best when they see the light of day.

Lastly if there is anyone subscribed to this email who is not a part of KiwiRPG and you are wondering about joining; please do! If you live in Aotearoa, or are from here but live abroad, you are more than welcome. This is especially true of our marginalized communities but especially Tangata Whenua. This community simultaneously is about nurturing our hobby in NZ while also being Kaitiaki of the taonga of Aotearoa in the broader RPG sphere, a task that we have already had to exercise not long ago. So the more people we have, and the more diverse our membership, the lighter that load and the more well placed we are to make that happen.

If you subscribe to the mailing list and are not from here, welcome! Please stay subscribed to this mail list, as we are only getting started and it is going to get much bigger and better from here.

Ake ake ake kia kaha e!

Liam Stevens
Chair of the KiwiRPG Committee

 

Statement from KiwiRPG chair Liam Stevens

Kia ora tātou

I wanted to take a moment to respond to this last week’s controversy surrounding World of Darkness’s appropriation of the likeness of Tāme Iti, renowned activist and kaumatua of Ngāi Tūhoe, and their response to it. Due to the complicated and confusing nature of publishing for the World of Darkness line between Paradox and Renegade Game Studios, I shall refer to both entities as World of Darkness.

It is already documented elsewhere, but the TL:DR is that World of Darkness released a preview from their upcoming Werewolf The Apocalypse book. In the artwork of this preview was a character that had Tāme Iti’s face, including his Mataora, using a replication of a photo of Tāme. The community noticed and called on World of Darkness to fix this issue. World of Darkness posted two statements, one stating they would look into this, and then later another stating that they would be removing this art from the upcoming publication. 

Removing the artwork is the right thing to do, and I have to commend World of Darkness for taking this step. This issue happening at all is unacceptable. That said, it is important that we acknowledge when actions are taken to right these sorts of wrongs. Sadly it is all too common that the injustices against indigenous communities by publishers go unrectified in these situations. So when action is taken I am always glad to see it. Hopefully this is only the start of more efforts to move towards avoiding this sort of wrong completely going forward. 

Let me be blunt here; World of Darkness is fortunate that their cultural incompetence was caught in a pre-publishing preview. Had any other page in their book been the subject of this preview, it is highly likely that this appropriation of Tāme’s likeness and our cultural traditions would have been published. And I do wonder what other wrongs exist in the pages yet unseen.

The industry needs to normalize the practice of not utilizing indigenous cultures for their game’s aesthetic. It is very likely that the artist in this case did not know much about the culture they were using, they likely searched the internet for tribal facial tattoos and just helped themselves to the image, making many faux pas in the process. Instead the use of indigenous culture, or any culture for that matter, should be a deliberate act, with the experts of the culture being engaged from the start to ensure it is used with the care, mana and respect it deserves. When you treat cultures like aesthetics or bags of inspiration for the plunder, you are going to put your foot in it, and World of Darkness demonstrated this fully.

Much has been made of the collaboration with indigenous consultants for the current Werewolf line and yet this still happened. This is because not all indigenous cultures are alike. This may seem like an obvious statement, but it is one too often forgotten. 

Often when publishers talk about seeking consultation about cultural safety, what they really seek is to be safe from criticism for the use of this culture. But the reality is you are never safe from criticism for using another’s culture, nor should you be. Instead seek collaboration to empower indigenous cultures to express themselves as they see fit, either through their own works or as collaborators on yours. Often we have had to fight, and still do, to maintain the mana of our cultures, so it should be us who shares them with the world.

There is a common saying “It’s better to ask forgiveness than permission”. It is that thinking which has resulted in indigenous cultures having to cling on to the edges of their cultural identity with tight fists as colonial aggressors take take and take some more. When a game designer thinks it’s their right to include our culture, watered down as it is, into their works without permission, they are joining the long line of colonial thieves. So instead, let us change the dynamic. Let us encourage others to not only ask for permission, but collaboration. Let indigenous tell their stories, rather than discover their face upon your page, awkwardly attached to another body bearing Polynesian tattoos.

But until then, I acknowledge World of Darkness for admitting their wrongs and seeking to fix them. What is done is done, but hopefully going forward they learn, at the very least, what not to do. And going forward won’t need to seek forgiveness. I have just seen that Tāme is aware of what happened and has contacted World of Darkness to discuss. Hopefully they learn from him and his mana too. Let us all see this for the lesson to the industry that it should be and aim to do much better.

Whāia te mātauranga hei oranga mō koutou

Hei konā mai

Liam Stevens
Ngāti Kahungunu ki te wairoa
Chair of KiwiRPG