Wāhi Tapu Project
Working with the wāhi tapu layer in ArcGIS
What is the kaupapa?
The goal for this part of the project is to build a base foundation of knowledge about wāhi tapu sites that fall within or around the boundaries of PKW whenua.
How were these sites identified?
The location, name and type of site were sourced through ArchSite which is the online portal to the New Zealand Archaeologists Association database. This database identifies thousands of archaeological sites in the Taranaki region alone. However only 132 of these sites fall within or near the boundaries of PKW owned land.
All Archaeological Sites in Taranaki
Building this base foundation
The archaeologists record for the site tends to be the most comprehensive record about each given site and for most, the only record that is available.
Information has been collected from books, journal articles, websites and maps and then linked back to their respective site.
It is not un-common that the archaeological record has no recorded name for a given site, which has made it difficult to find other references to these wāhi tapu. However for some wāhi such as Te Ihupuku in Waitotara, there are some other resources available:
PKW Wāhi Tapu Layer
Where are these references listed?
The layer that is displayed in the map above is built out of a spreadsheet named Master Source Collation (however you can name it whatever you like) and it is located in the Tūmatauenga folder. This spreadsheet contains information about all of the 132 wāhi tapu sites and lists any relevant URL's. The URL's (except for a few) link to documents that are hosted on the PKW website. It is this spreadsheet that you will want to add new information to, in order to enrich the layer.
Adding information to this spreadsheet as further kōrero is gathered
When adding/removing information from the spreadsheet, it is best to download a copy, edit it and test the changes on a new map before uploading it. Make sure to save the spreadsheet as a csv file so it is compatible with ArcGIS. You can do this by clicking save as when you are finished editing the file and under file format, choose comma separated values.
Building a layer out of the spreadsheet
Now you're done
You now have an updated spreadsheet living on the PKW ArcGIS platform and a map layer that represents the data in that spreadsheet.
