Whale song has long been a spiritual or sacred relationship and symbolic expression in Māori and indigenous culture.
Now researchers are on the verge of using artificial intelligence to decode the language of cetaceans.
“Now we understand the units that can form the language of whales, and we can assemble them in ways that mimic the language,” respected marine ecologist Dr Carlos Duarte says.
He says the big data collected in supercomputers and AI tools such as ChatGPT and Tron have seen the international science community fast-track to decipher the complex vocalisations of whales, dolphins, and other cetaceans. However, Duarte says understanding the language is still a process in progress.
“Scientists now play back those whale words, and the whales actually answer, but we don’t have any idea what we’re saying,” Duartre says.
The BBC reported studies earlier this year where scientists “conversed” with a humpback whale in southeast Alaska, saying their encounter could be the first step towards communication with non-human intelligence.
Te Whānau-a-Apanui leader Rikirangi Gage says for Māori, whale songs and whale stories have long been a part of oral history.
“Ko te tohorā tētahi o ngā tino, ngā tipua o te moana. Ko Kae rāua ko Tutunui, ko wēnā kōrero mō tērā, ā, tae atu ki a mātou i te rohe o Te Tai Rāwhiti, o ngā kōrero mō Paikea,” says Gage.
“The whale is one of the greats. They are sentient beings of the ocean, such as the story of Kae and Tutunui, and those stories about them, and that extends to us in the region of Te Tairāwhiti, with stories of Paikea.”
Paikea is regarded as an ancestor, a whale for some, and to others the rider who rode on the whale that left Maukē, in Rarotonga and journeyed to the east coast of Aotearoa.
“Nā te taiao kua akona, he mea rerekē anō me pērā atu i te wā o ngā pakeke. Tūhono atu ngā pakeke ahakoa he ika, ā, kei te whakapapa e tūhono nei tangata ki te ika, tū ana i ngā tāngata ki te rākau, me te mea nei kei te noho tahi tātou me te ao tūroa nei, ka whakaatuangia anā, he tohu tērā,” says Gage.
“We have learned from the environment but it is different in comparison to the time of our elders. Elders would know how to connect even if it’s a fish, and they would know the genealogy of how we connect to a fish. Whether that’s a human connection to a fish or a human connection with forests, we are living together with the natural world. It shows, indeed, a sign of that.”
“He mea tino nui rawa tēnā ki te hinengaro a ngā tīpuna tēnā mea i te taiao, a te moana ko Tangaroa tērā, ngā rākau Tāne tērā, ā, tae noa ki a Papatūānuku, a Rangi e tū nei whakatūngia rātou. Koirā te akoranga nui kei roto i ngā wā rātou kōrero kua mahue ki a tātou.
Māori ancestors found this interconnectedness to the environment significant - the ocean, that is Tangaroa, the forests that are Tāne (Mahuta), and extending to Papatūānuku (Mother Earth), to Rangi (Sky Father) who stand together, they’ve been personified. That is the greatest teachings within their oral stories that have been passed down to us.
Earlier this year, Whānau-a-Apanui leader Rikirangi Gage was part of the Declaration He Whakaputanga Moana, giving whales rights, including the freedom of movement, a healthy environment and the restoration of their populations. He says the added research by scientists will bring more awareness about whales.
“He kete kōrero, kua whākina mai ngā hua mō ngā āhuatanga ngā wā o te ngarongaro mō tēnā mātauranga, anā kua whakapiri mai i tā mātou, anā ki tā te hinengaro Māori e whāwhā, i kite me te pai anō te nohotahi i te taha o ngā... me kī o ngā Pākehā nei, kua kite i tētahi huarahi. Kua kite i tētahi ara, kia taea ai tātou te tiaki, taea ai tātou te whakamana i te kauika o Tangaroa nei,” says Gage.
“The plethora of discussion points and aspects, celestial knowledge for understanding has brought us together, our Māori perspective,” Gage says. “We have seen that it is good to live together alongside Pākehā, who have seen one of many ways forward. They have seen a path that allows us to care for and empower the family of Tangaroa.”
Duarte says the dream of being one with whales is drawing closer.
“Being able to interact with them in an intelligent manner is probably being opened up by the new developments in artificial intelligence, bringing that long dream and realisation of Maori culture to life and merging the two ways of knowing - the indigenous way of knowing with new technologies.”