Tikanga Māori perspective of the Internet

Karaitiana N Taiuru · 17 April 2015 These two presentations were first presented by Karaitiana Taiuru to the Open Source/Open Society 2015 conference (Indigenous break out session) in Wellington on April 17 2015. N Part 1: The Internet infrastructure and technologies from an Indigenous perspective: comparing Māori traditions and genealogies Part 2: Impacts and Considerations … Read more

Macrons in Domain Names: History and a Practical Guide to IDNs in .nz (2006–2026)

domain names on cubes on a keyboard

Māori Macrons in Domain Names: The History and a Practical Guide to IDNs in .nz (2006–2026) By Dr Karaitiana Taiuru. Consolidated on 10 October 2026 from twelve posts first published between 28 April 2006 and 31 December 2023. Original publication dates are kept throughout. Key facts at a glance What: Māori macron vowels (ā ē … Read more

NZ media coverage of AI and Māori

UNESCO/AIGeneratedAttribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Māori are named in only about a third of New Zealand news stories about Artificial Intelligence (AI). Māori are talked about, but rarely heard. When you count who is quoted, Māori technology, rights and data sovereignty voices make up just 3% of media articles. This creates an issue where Māori societal harms, opportunities and benefits … Read more

Principles for Digital Identity

Introduction Digital identity in New Zealand (DIiNZ) must recognise that Māori identity is not only an attribute of an individual account, but also relational, collective, and grounded in whakapapa, whānau, hapū, iwi, whenua and other traditional collective identity mechanisms. Most digital identity systems begin from a different assumption, that one person, one account, verified by … Read more

Social Licence and Te Tiriti o Waitangi

People at a desk with computers talking

What is a social licence? A social licence to operate (SLO) is the ongoing acceptance or approval that an organisation receives from communities and other groups affected by its activities. It is different from formal legal permission. A social licence reflects trust and credibility built through responsible practices, ethical behaviour and meaningful engagement. The idea … Read more

NZ racist AI generated ad

Clip from the advert depicting a man in a headlock

Voyager Broadband‘s (Actrix Networks, 1st Domains / Affordable Domains / Register Direct) latest advertisement (via RNZ) shows two Māori/Pacific men, one of whom is attacking a Pākehā man by having him in a chocker hold on the floor, after their internet drops out during a UFC match on the television. The advert was made with … Read more

Māori led framework for data centre development

data centre

This article explores a proposed Māori led framework for datacentre development. Using a Māori owned and developed framework using environmental protections that are interwoven in tikanga Māori that respect and utilise the New Zealand environment. It argues that by doing so, New Zealand could sustainably cater to the development of AI and Data centres. This … Read more

Māori Data Sovereignty preferences in GenAI

This post analyses public preferences of the use of GenAI in the policy decision-making process across New Zealand and compares non-New Zealand Māori to other New Zealand’s preferences. The methodology is at the end of the article. Public preferences of the use of GenAI in the policy decision-making process across New Zealand. Each column is … Read more

Tikanga Māori with Smart glasses

Smart Glasses

There is an urgent need for marae to implement new kawa and tikanga to protect the people form anonymously being AI’s training data. Camera glasses (pervert glasses) now sold at Kmart for ninety-nine dollars, and other more expensive glasses with facial recognition updates, recording video and stills, wired to an AI assistant are about to … Read more

Record of stolen Māori Knowledge by AI

Scraped

My ongoing investigation of scraped and stolen Māori knowledge by AI has identified more than 80 Māori authors, 8 non Māori kaupapa Māori authors (194 plus titles) and song artists; 100’s of videos from Te Karere TVNZ and Marae TV sourced primarily from YouTube, Māori academics articles published in Elsevier and JSTOR, including texts from … Read more

Māori Data Sovereignty Operationalised with Google Maps

Google maps logo

This week Google Maps began rolling out a New Zealand voice that pronounces te reo Māori place names correctly. Place name Whangārei with the soft “f” sound from an New Zealand dialect, Taupō with the long vowel, Karangahape Road spoken as it was named by our tūpuna, not as decades of navigation systems and generations … Read more

Deep fake harms real scenario and new legislation

Person with a device taking a photo

Too often in New Zealand, AI safety folk (who usually have a high level of privilege or are detached from vulnerable communities), will reference international AI stories highlighting harms while being oblivious to local harm stories. This is important from the perspective that New Zealand is not immune from AI harms and it helps politicians … Read more

Tikanga AI images of a person

Three male models looking at the camera

A New Zealand model Elijah Timmins-Scanlon alleges streetwear brand Huffer is generating models with AI, using the likeness of models from previous Huffer campaigns, without disclosure. Shockingly, On 6 June, Huffer wrote to him demanding he “immediately remove, or amend” posts it claimed may breach the Harmful Digital Communications Act 2015  and asserted a right … Read more

Māori Data Sovereignty and the Fragility of Borrowed AI

padlock

Anthropic the company behind the Claude AI received with no warning or explanation, a directive directing them to immediately suspend access to their Fable 5 and Mythos 5 models for all foreign nationals in America and all non-Americans on the planet, . This included New Zealand who had access for several days prior. “Fable 5 … Read more

Human Oversight in Automated Decision Making

Robot at a computer monitor in a dark room.

The New Zealand media continue to report on AI harms from a western, academic, middle-class perspective while continuing to make invisible communities silent and ignored. This is a te ao Māori perspective of the recent MSD automated Decision Making law that was passed, delving deep into community harms for Māori. I have spent years documenting … Read more

Ministry’s AI Guidance- wrong Māori advice

The Ministry for Regulation’s Responsible AI in Action guidance (May 2026) represents a credible foundation for regulators engaging with Artificial Intelligence. However, the guidance contains a significant and consequential gap: its treatment of Te Tiriti o Waitangi and Māori data sovereignty is underdeveloped, incorrect, outdated, and structurally undermined by the absence of Māori voices in … Read more

NZ FTA with India – dangers for Māori

In 1907, the New Zealand Government passed an Act with a single purpose: to suppress tohunga and the traditional Māori knowledge and beliefs they held. It was not repealed until 1962. This was in addition to the Natives Schools Act, repression of reo Māori and culture and other systematic cultural erasure. I grew up seeing … Read more