Ngai Tahu Pepeha and mihimihi resource

Aoraki with Pukakai in front

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 common question “Nō hea koe?” translated as “Where are you from?” This scoping report will … Read more

Digital Whakapapa and image considerations

A dirt path winds through grassy hills towards a city visible in the distance under a glowing sunset.

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. Whakapapa and tipuna images including images of the dead, that are accessed via wifi Internet … Read more

2017 govt domain name update

NZGOV

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 Zealand government. Ministry of Justice kaupapature.co.nz kaupapature.org.nz maorilandcourt.govt.nz maorilandonline.co.nz maorilandonline.govt.nz maorilandonline.net.nz maorilandonline.org.nz waitangitribunal.govt.nz waitangi-tribunal.govt.nz   … Read more

Historical .iwi.nz criteria

iwi nz in a purple box

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 1994. Prior to the founding of Internet Society of New Zealand, the following guidelines were … Read more

Name change for Massey University – historical racism against Māori

Massey-university

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 – Te Kunenga ki Pūrehuroa as his research has revealed that its namesake was racist against … Read more

Kauamatua threatened with arrest

Police

Kaumatua Kura Moeahu parliament’s Senior Māori Advisor was threatened with arrest for speaking te reo Māori after a traffic stop in Lower Hutt MāorTV has reported. It is only when the officer noticed Kura’s jacket had a Police related logo on it that the officer was informed by Kura that he is a Police Māori advisory board … Read more

Word list of te reo Moriori

Moriori

This is not an academic or linguist publication, but a compilation of several historically published sources that contain word lists of Moriori. For full details including sources and an analysis download the publication here. My intention as a researcher was to compile and publish this material which is scattered among many historical publications that are … Read more

Māori baby names list

Pepi

Over 1300 Maori Baby names; Christian, Mormon and non religious first names and their equivalent English name.
Before using a name in the list, you should also check what other meanings are associated with the name. In the Maori language one word may have multiple meanings.

Warning: Twitter spam targeting Māori

A red circle with a diagonal slash through it overlying the word SPAM.

The past 48 hours we has seen a large concentrated Twitter spam attack targeting Māori using popular key words and soft pornography. This is the first time Māori has been targeted in a spam campaign on Twitter and there appears to be no real reason or justification for it. On the surface it appears as … Read more

Twitter is the latest digital Indigenous risk

Snapchat logo: a white ghost icon outlined in black on a yellow square background with rounded corners.

Section 5 of the new Twitter Terms of Service state that Twitter users are now bound to giver full worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free license (with the right to sublicense) to use, copy, reproduce, process, adapt, modify, publish, transmit, display and distribute any information you tweet. Twitter stops short of claiming any copyright or intellectual property rights … Read more

NZ School oversight of Māori in the house system

A tightly curled fern frond unfurling from a stem.

Little or no consideration has been applied to the house system in New Zealand Schools and the impacts that they have on Māori children. Many Māori children may be placed in a house that competes against another house that may have their ancestral name or other significant tribal sensitive name. The house system at school is … Read more

Macrons for Mac OSX (older than Lion)

macrons

To enable macrons to be created in Mac OSX systems that are older than Lion. 1. Launch the System Preferences application 2. Navigate to Language & Text, then the Input Sources tab 3. Find Māori on the list and tick the checkbox next to it 4. Tick the box next to “Show Input menu in … Read more

Macrons in iPad 4, iPhone 4 and later

macrons

These devices and their operating systems have system wide keyboard(s) available by default. Mac OSX Lion can also create macrons this way. Hold down the key for the vowel you want to macronise (Maybe a second). A small dialog will pop up showing you several options, including a macron.

Te Reo Maori macrons in Samsung Galaxy

White Samsung smartphone displaying a colourful geometric pattern on the screen.

Samsung Galaxy 4 Samsung Galaxy 4 has several default common languages that do not include Māori or other language to create macrons. To install Māori and other languages, the easiest method is to install an app from Google Store. Latvian is the only language currently available that will create and recognise macrons. Install any soft keyboard … Read more

Macrons not recognised in email by Government and Polytechnic web sites and systems

The text .maori.nz and tereomaori.govt.nz in red lettering.

If you have te reo Māori or macrons in your email address, it is unlikely you will be able to contact a government department, MP, local council or a polytechnic. Read the full report here. Most of the 158 NZ government department website online contact forms surveyed, would not accept an email with macrons. This … Read more

Te Reo Maori to prevent hackers

A person wearing a dark balaclava leaning over a computer keyboard.

Using a Creative Commons Aotearoa list of Māori words from Te Ngutu Kura, Taipo and Indigenous developer has created a Māori Diceware word list to create pass phrases. The instrucitons and download can be found here https://github.com/Taipo/MaoriDiceware   This list can be used for kura kaupapa, kura, whanau, iwi and hapu to generate secure passphrases that … Read more