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
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Māori cultural ethical considerations in Digital Security
A presentation given to the BSidesWLG 2017 conference on Māori cultural ethical considerations in Information Security (infosec). The point of the presentation was to very broadly and at a high level touch on private and government infosec communities to raise awareness of…
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Ngai Tahu Pepeha and mihimihi resource
Identifying ancestry and family links with a person’s tribal affiliations and whakapapa (genealogy) to the land via pepeha (formulaic expression of ancestral connections) is one of the most common and integral forms of identification in the Māori world: hence the…
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Digital Whakapapa and image considerations
Digitising whakapapa records and images of tipuna to be shared on the Internet is increasingly becoming common practice without any discussion about the consequences. Internet protection agencies such as NetSafe have no cultural resources to advise Maori of potential issues.…
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Iwi Citizen or Tribal Member
The terms ‘tribal member’ and ‘hapū member’ are colonial terms with a number of detrimental connotations. Many Indigenous Peoples of the world have suffered the same fate with colonial and derogatory terms to describe them. The definition of the word…
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Dangerous game of DNA testing for Maori
Using scenario and future planning techniques: I will discuss how DNA testing to prove how Māori you are, to identify your ancestry via DNA testing, or the more recent issue of New Zealand school teachers being offered free DNA testing…
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Protecting digital ancestor images
Digitising images of ancestors, taonga and places of cultural value and then sharing the image with whanau and friends on the Internet is common, as it is quick and easy to share with multiple people with just a few clicks…
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Keyboard warrior definition
The definition of a keyboard warrior is often used by non technically literate people as a derogatory term applied to online trolls/cyberbully and people who are online activists using technology to fight and raise concerns for a cause. Warrior is a term…
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2017 govt domain name update
New Zealand Government usage of Māori Language in domains 2017 update A number of Māori language domains are no longer used from 2013, thus heavily reducing the amount of te reo Māori used in government domain names used by the New…
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Ethnographers for digital Maori world?
The digital age has many unknown consequences for Māori culture and history. I question if we need to be our own ethnographers in this rapidly changing digital world? Writing whakapapa or other important information for future generations in the sand at the…
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Māori activism with Domain Name System
For over 20 years up till 2017, Māori fought for the right to be to be fairly represented in the New Zealand Internet Domain Name System and to a lesser extent for recognition within the New Zealand Internet governing body InternetNZ, in…
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Māori Domain Name Cybersquatting: The History, the Cases, and How to Protect Iwi and Māori Names Online
By Dr Karaitiana Taiuru. Consolidated on 10 October 2026 from seven posts first published between 27 July 2008 and 23 January 2017. Original publication dates are kept throughout. Key facts at a glance The problem: since .maori.nz launched on 5…
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Reo Māori email addresses
Research into how many .govt.nz web site contact forms and contact email addresses would accept an email address with a Māori macron (IDN). First published in 2015 here. Contents Methodology. 2 Introduction. 4 Summary. 5 Key findings. 6 Conclusion. 7…
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Value of iwi nz and protection options
iwi.nz is a moderated 2nd level domain specific to Iwi Māori. It is moderated to protect Iwi applicants from individuals: Using an Iwi name for non Iwi purposes From purchasing an Iwi name in the .iwi.nz area, and offering to…
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Historical .iwi.nz criteria
All historical .iwi.nz moderation policies from the original in 1997. The current policy is here. The original moderation policy was casual and was not written or published in in any formal manner until 1997. 1994 Guidelines 1997 2000 2003 2011…
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Cultural analysis of Emotiki app and why it could be offensive
Emotiki contains a number of culturally unsafe issues: the satirical use of a Polynesian deity Tiki, Tame Iti and the use of his face and tā moko without permission (only in release 1, despite their denial to Te Kaea Maori Television, here…
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Directory of Māori ICT Groups
An analysis and directory of Māori ICT groups and individuals designed for easy authorative reference to the myriad of Māori ICT organisations that are often created specifically for one purpose. Introduction The Māori ICT organisations landscape is diverse and un documented which…
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Digital whakapapa
The nature of the web and digital technologies leads Māori ICT organisations, kupu hou creation, Māori related software, web sites and digital tools to by default, ignore whakapapa in the digital world. I have already spoken widely about tikanga in the…
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Māori ICT Organisations analysis and directory
The Māori ICT organisations landscape is diverse and un documented which creates confusion or misunderstandings by governments and lobby groups as to what Maori ICT groups exist resulting in Internet/ICT consultations not being held with relevant Māori groups or misconceptions from non Māori…
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Māori ICT Groups analysis and directory
An analysis and directory of Māori ICT groups and individuals designed for easy authorative reference to the myriad of Māori ICT organisations that are often created specifically for one purpose. Introduction The Māori ICT organisations landscape is diverse and un documented which…
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Dictionary of Māori Computer and Social Media terms
Over 374,000 unique headwords with translations from 32 different recorded sources makes this dictionary over six times larger than Ryan Modern Māori Dictionary, with almost 15 times more head words than the Williams dictionary.
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Name change for Massey University – historical racism against Māori
New Zealand is made up of numerous colonial place and street names, as are organisations and brands. Likewise, there are many place, street, educational institutions and government organisations with Māori names. A Massey academic is suggesting a name change for Massey University…
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Google Translate and NZ society’s stereotype of Māori people
The media article on the blunder of using Google translate by a mayoral candidate created lots of social media discussions that focused only on the tool and its te reo Māori issues and not the subtle racism in the story.…
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Social media censorship of traditional moko images
Media reports censorship of moko images on Facebook and Instagram but some misunderstand which organisation can assist. In one article by Māori Television it states that the Ministry of Culture and Heritage have been approached for comment and it states: Te Kaea is…
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Disney releases Polynesian skin kids outfit
Labeled as a Maui Costume for Kids based on the Disney movie Moana. The costumes are made to look like brown skin with Polynesian tattoos. UPDATED Disney pulls Maui costume 22/09/207 There are a number of issues for Polynesian cultures and for Māori special considerations…