Nostr

nostr:npub1q0hyk5rfkj3a5w8aactlc9z4374m54ll8pkmfc6hhy4dt8cq5nfq7lxqc8

But even this is pretty ambiguous. Among Māori, the indigenous people of Aotearoa, there's a brilliant cultural technology called "whakawhanaungatanga". It roughly translates as "making family".

Whenever they come together in a formal setting, they spend a lot of time establishing "whakapapa". This is often translated as "genealogy", but that's only one tiny slice of it. A better translation might be "relatedness".

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Strypey 2y ago

nostr:npub1q0hyk5rfkj3a5w8aactlc9z4374m54ll8pkmfc6hhy4dt8cq5nfq7lxqc8

Because whakapapa isn't just about actual family ties - whether through blood or marriage - but any shared history or cooperation - or conflict - that relates them to people in the other group. Time spent getting all this on the table means that by the time they start discussing the agenda of the meeting, everyone already knows where they stand with each other. Which *always* affects the way group conversations play out, often in confusing ways if it's not explicit

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Strypey 2y ago

nostr:npub1q0hyk5rfkj3a5w8aactlc9z4374m54ll8pkmfc6hhy4dt8cq5nfq7lxqc8

Pākeha (non-Māori, particularly those of European cultural origins) often fail to understand the value of whakawhanaungatanga. We tend to assume that time would be better spent on agenda items. But once one gets used to the practice, it becomes obvious that it saves far more time than it uses up, by avoiding a lot of miscommunication, mismatched expectations etc.

I think this is something the Free Code development culture could learn a lot from.

😁

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