Safeguarding Māori Heritage with 3D Printing

With the development of 3D technologies, additive manufacturing has been a revolutionary medium for the creation of parts and objects that have previously been limited in availability, material and construction time. Not least among these has been 3D printed musical instruments, for example, which can provide creative, inexpensive alternative forms of expression than their traditionally made counterparts. Moreover, often times 3D scanning has been used to model the shapes and architectures of instruments which enables AM engineers to recreate similar tones with a printed version.

At the crossroads of 3D printing and cultural heritage stands Professor Olaf Diegel, head of the Creative Design and Additive Manufacturing Lab at the University of Auckland in New Zealand. Diegel and his team have been working with the Māori community to create 3D printed replicas of traditional Māori instruments which hold great cultural significance. This is not the first time that 3D technologies have been used for the mission of cultural heritage preservation either; from the digitization of Easter Island to the recreation of famed works of art for the visually impaired, 3D printing is proving to be a means to increase accessibility and cultural awareness around the world.

Professor Olaf Diegel holding a replica of the pūtātara conch shell horn (Photo credits: Chris Loufte)

These unique traditional instruments (taonga pūoro) represent a great deal of cultural importance to the Māori people. The two instruments chosen to be recreated were the pūtātara, a conch shell trumpet, and a pūkāea, or long trumpet, which is traditionally carved from wood. After scanning the instruments via CT scan, the high-definition 3D images were used to form the shapes necessary to recreate the necessary shapes to accurately recreate the instruments’ sound as they are played.