Blog – Te Kete o Karaitiana Taiuru

Dr Karaitiana Taiuru regularly composes blog posts on topics relating to Māori and Artificial Intelligence, Data Sovereignty, Safety, Cultural Appropriation and other related topics. Please subscribe to the RSS feed http://www.taiuru.co.nz/rss to keep up to date.

All posts

  • European men mostly charged under Harmful Digital Communications Act

    European men mostly charged under Harmful Digital Communications Act

    In New Zealand European men aged between 20 and 39 years old are most likely to commit harmful digital acts and be charged, according to the annual statistics from the Ministry of Justice. The most likely victims of harmful digital…

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  • Google Translate Māori non representative

    Google Translate Māori non representative

    Google Translate is another example of AI, Algorithms and Machine Learning discriminating against minorities, while misrepresenting the Maori language and customs . Google Translate interprets te reo Maori more accurately as it learns and is supporting the revival of te…

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  • Origins of the term Pākehā

    The word Pākehā is a controversial word for some people. Some Māori and non Māori claim that the word Pākehā is offensive. Others have attempted to explain the word based on their own understandings and sometimes own hapū and whānau…

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  • Tikanga about animated pictures of the dead

    Tikanga about animated pictures of the dead

    A new technological trend of animating images of people is becoming popular with images Māori tipuna and other dead people being animated for fun without knowledge of the offence to Māori, whānau, hapū and Iwi, nor the tikanga breaches. The…

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  • Māori Data Sovereignty an Updated Definition

    Māori Data Sovereignty an Updated Definition

    Update: All Māori Data Sovereignty posts have been combined and updated into a Compendium of Māori Data Sovereignty – https://www.taiuru.co.nz/compendium-of-maori-data-sovereignty/  Over the past four years there has been such a directed focus on Iwi rights with Data held by the Crown…

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  • Can the Māori Language be colonised if used with AI and other digital technologies?

    Can the Māori Language be colonised if used with AI and other digital technologies?

    This brief article looks at the idea that the Māori language will be colonised if used in speech recognition, machine learning, AI and other linguist technologies. This article makes the argument that the Māori language can not be colonised and…

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  • Māori Culture Guidelines for Brand Owners and Marketing

    Māori Culture Guidelines for Brand Owners and Marketing

    These high level guidelines have been written by Karaitiana Taiuru who has been involved with Māori Cultural rights, Indigenous and Traditional Knowledge and assisting brands both in New Zealand and internationally for over 25 years. Last updated January 10 2021.…

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  • Maori Cultural DNA

    At the end of November 2020,  the Law Commission released a report on DNA samples in Criminal Investigations that made sweeping recommendations that included protecting Māori cultural rights and recognising Te Tiriti obligations. It recommended that the law governing the…

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  • Classic racist reply to claims of cultural appropriation

    Classic racist reply to claims of cultural appropriation

    I have been calling out and educating perpetrators of cultural appropriation for decades. Of the hundreds of responses and abuse mocking me, there is a common theme as follows: As a Maori/Indigenous Person (etc) you wear European clothes, a European…

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  • Māori Cultural considerations with Facial Recognition Technology in New Zealand

    Māori Cultural considerations with Facial Recognition Technology in New Zealand

    The New Zealand Police, Customs, Ministry of Justice, DIA and other government agencies have a wide arsenal of Facial Recognition technologies with little or no regulation or consultation with Māori. This will likely lead to the likelihood of further widespread…

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  • Māori Data Sovereignty and Associated Legal Instruments

    Māori Data Sovereignty and Associated Legal Instruments

    Update: All Māori Data Sovereignty posts have been combined and updated into a Compendium of Māori Data Sovereignty – https://www.taiuru.co.nz/compendium-of-maori-data-sovereignty/  A new and inclusive of all Māori people and societies, not just Iwi as has been the status quo since Māori…

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  • Māori business self identification

    Māori business self identification

    Stuff reported a story that Māori businesses will soon have the opportunity to self identify as Maori. For the first time, a national register will let companies say if they identify as a Māori business. A change to the National…

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  • Māori Data Sovereignty and Digital Colonisation

    Māori Data Sovereignty and Digital Colonisation

    Presentation to the Digital Justice – Emerging Technologies, Methods and Research on September 11 2020. Presentation here. Abstract An introduction to Māori and Indigenous Data sovereignty and digital colonisation. The presentation starts with a traditional Māori society view of Data,…

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  • NZ Algorithm charter – Are Māori protected?

    NZ Algorithm charter – Are Māori protected?

    The Algorithm charter for Aotearoa New Zealand was released by the New Zealand Government earlier this year. The charter has the potential to further discriminate against Māori than the current biases of Data, Algorithms and Machine learning already does. This…

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  • Kingi appropriation or ill informed individuals

    Kingi appropriation or ill informed individuals

    The NZ Herald and Stuff have run a number of stories about a restaurant using the name “Kingi” and a few Māori and non Māori claiming it is cultural appropriation. The arguments are in my opinion getting so absurd that…

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  • Govt app discriminates against Māori language in another embarrassing ICT lesson

    Govt app discriminates against Māori language in another embarrassing ICT lesson

    Another embarrassing lesson for the ICT and Digital industry when working with the New Zealand government. If you don’t consider Treaty of Waitangi/Te Tiriti with digital projects you could unintentionally discriminate against Māori, Treaty and in this case legislation that…

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  • Eroding tikanga of the hongi

    The recent introduction of kissing females on the cheek and ignoring the customary practice of a hongi creates a number of issues including the loss of tikanga and the real possibility of discriminating against people in our community. THe earliest…

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  • 5G spectrum is a taonga Māori

    Māori have an unique opportunity to gain substantial social, economic and educational advantages with 5G spectrum now that the government has allocated Māori a slice. The biggest risk is the lack of consultation with the handful of treaty claimants who…

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  • Kiwiana, Religious abuse or appropriation?

    Kiwiana, Religious abuse or appropriation?

    This article discusses the inappropriate and satirical usage of Māori religious icons and racial stereotypes of Māori in the Tasti bar advert that TVNZ recently played on air. The advert is also online here.   UPDATE: Tasti apologise and state…

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  • Tips to protect tapu and Māori knowledge online

    Tips to protect tapu and Māori knowledge online

    Cultural appropriation of taonga Māori online is continually increasing despite the backlash on social media and in the media (mainstream and Māori). Just recently one art shop in Nelson who continued to offer offensive culturally appropriated art, despite apologising to…

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  • Māori Children online safety statistics analysis

    Māori Children online safety statistics analysis

    NetSafe released their second Ngā taiohi matihiko o Aotearoa – New Zealand Kids Online. The research analyses New Zealand children’s experiences of online risks and their perceptions of harm. Two milestones for Māori. One ‘Kia ora’ is spelled orthographically correct…

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  • Treaty of Waitangi/Te Tiriti and Māori Ethics Guidelines for: AI, Algorithms, Data and IOT

    Treaty of Waitangi/Te Tiriti and Māori Ethics Guidelines for: AI, Algorithms, Data and IOT

    Author: Karaitiana Taiuru Published: May 04, 2020 ISBN: 978-0-9582615 ISBN: 0-9582597-6-3 (Digital) Download Citation: (Taiuru, K. 2020. Treaty of Waitangi/Te Tiriti and Māori Ethics Guidelines for: AI, Algorithms, Data and IOT. Retrieved from http://www.taiuru.Maori.nz/TiritiEthicalGuide).   Copyright © Copyright Treaty of…

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  • macrons in .nz domain names

    macrons in .nz domain names

    This blog post is an update to my June 05 2011 post “Registering a domain name with a macron“. Since July 26, 2010 in New Zealand, all authorised .nz registrars have to be able to register a .nz domain name…

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  • Māori Cultural Appropriation

    Māori Cultural Appropriation

    I was recently interviewed about Cultural Appropriation for an AUT Bachelor of Communication Studies paper about Intercultural Communication. The first part of the interview was via email, then video. I feel that this information may be useful to others, so…

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