Domain names are the addresses people use to find us online. When te reo Māori appears in them, it becomes part of the everyday fabric of the internet in Aotearoa. When it doesn’t, the language is missing from one of the most visible places it could be used. This article looks at how te reo Māori was used in .nz domain names: in Māori words, in the words “Māori” and “Aotearoa”, by iwi, by kaupapa Māori schools, and by the New Zealand Government.
All figures are as at 31 July 2013, when the Domain Name Commission ran queries on the .nz register for this research.
Māori words across .nz
In total, 5,318 registered .nz domain names contained Māori words. The share varied sharply between second-level domains (2LDs). Māori words appeared in 81% of .iwi.nz names, 23.5% of .maori.nz names and 20.2% of .school.nz names, but in only 0.6% of .co.nz names, the largest part of .nz.
Three domains, .cri.nz, .mil.nz and .parliament.nz, had no Māori words. NIWA, in .cri.nz, could read as a Māori word, but it is an abbreviation of the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research, which also has a Māori name.
Domain names containing Māori words, by 2LD
| 2LD | Registrations | Share of the 2LD |
|---|---|---|
| .iwi.nz | 64 | 81.0% |
| .maori.nz | 280 | 23.5% |
| .school.nz | 674 | 20.2% |
| .ac.nz | 103 | 5.1% |
| .gen.nz | 66 | 4.7% |
| .govt.nz | 44 | 3.9% |
| .geek.nz | 42 | 3.4% |
| .kiwi.nz | 228 | 2.6% |
| .org.nz | 665 | 2.4% |
| .net.nz | 450 | 1.5% |
| .co.nz | 2,745 | 0.6% |
| .health.nz | 1 | 0.6% |
| .cri.nz, .mil.nz, .parliament.nz | 0 | 0% |
Māori words without macrons
Macrons have been available in .nz domain names since 2010, but most Māori words in domain names were still written without them.
Māori words used in domain names without macrons, by 2LD
| 2LD | Domain names |
|---|---|
| .co.nz | 67 |
| .maori.nz | 28 |
| .org.nz | 12 |
| .iwi.nz | 11 |
| .kiwi.nz | 4 |
| .ac.nz | 2 |
| .gen.nz | 2 |
| .net.nz | 1 |
| .school.nz | 1 |
| .cri.nz, .geek.nz, .govt.nz, .health.nz, .mil.nz, .parliament.nz | 0 |
| Total | 128 |
Domain names containing “maori”
Of the 530,927 .nz domain names, 297 contained the string “maori”. By comparison, 95 companies on the Companies Office register had “Maori” in their name. Most of these domain names were commercial .co.nz names, and only 14 were in .maori.nz.
| 2LD | Domain names | Share |
|---|---|---|
| .co.nz | 221 | 73.9% |
| .org.nz | 27 | 9.0% |
| .maori.nz / .māori.nz | 14 | 4.7% |
| .net.nz | 12 | 4.0% |
| .ac.nz | 8 | 2.7% |
| .kiwi.nz | 7 | 2.3% |
| .govt.nz | 5 | 1.7% |
| .school.nz | 4 | 1.3% |
| .geek.nz | 1 | 0.3% |
| .cri.nz, .mil.nz, .parliament.nz | 0 | 0% |
The double-vowel spelling “maaori” was not used at all: no .nz domain names contained it, and no registered companies used it in their name.
Domain names containing “Aotearoa”
Of the 530,927 .nz domain names, 196 contained the string “Aotearoa”. By comparison, 315 companies on the Companies Office register and 75 organisations in the Societies database had “Aotearoa” in their name.
| 2LD | Domain names | Share |
|---|---|---|
| .co.nz | 139 | 70.2% |
| .org.nz | 37 | 18.7% |
| .net.nz | 9 | 4.5% |
| .maori.nz / .māori.nz | 7 | 3.5% |
| .ac.nz | 3 | 1.5% |
| .gen.nz | 1 | 0.5% |
| .kiwi.nz | 1 | 0.5% |
| .school.nz | 1 | 0.5% |
| .cri.nz, .govt.nz, .health.nz, .mil.nz, .parliament.nz | 0 | 0% |
Iwi names
Iwi had registered 214 domain names across .nz and other country-code and generic domains. .iwi.nz was the most popular choice, followed by .co.nz and .maori.nz.
| Domain | Iwi domain names |
|---|---|
| .iwi.nz | 81 |
| .co.nz | 50 |
| .maori.nz | 38 |
| .com | 26 |
| .org.nz | 15 |
| .net | 2 |
| .net.nz | 1 |
| .org | 1 |
| Total | 214 |
Of the 81 .iwi.nz registrations, 70 had websites, ranging from basic information pages to complex membership systems. Six of those iwi also had a .maori.nz name that redirected to their .iwi.nz site for branding. Eight iwi used their .iwi.nz name to redirect to another domain that was their main address, usually because that name was registered before .iwi.nz was opened to all iwi.
Seven iwi names had been cybersquatted in other domains. This was of no concern to the iwi involved, as they had secured their names in .iwi.nz.
Kaupapa Māori schools
Kaupapa Māori schools mostly used .school.nz. A significant number relied on a page or subdomain on another provider’s site, such as school.nz or schoolzone.net.nz, rather than having a domain name of their own.
| Domain or hosting | Māori-medium schools | Mixed Māori-language schools | Schools with some Māori-medium education |
|---|---|---|---|
| .school.nz | 51 | 60 | 35 |
| .ac.nz | 4 | 3 | 1 |
| .co.nz | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| .org.nz | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| .com | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| Page or subdomain on school.nz | 21 | 2 | 1 |
| Page or subdomain on schoolzone.net.nz | 14 | 7 | 0 |
| Page or subdomain on schoolground.co.nz | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Facebook page only | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| No website | 5 | 1 | 0 |
| Schools in the category | 104 | 77 | 39 |
- Māori-medium schools: all students are in Māori-medium education.
- Mixed Māori-language schools: all students are either in Māori-medium education or learn te reo Māori in English-medium education.
- Schools with some Māori-medium education: some students are in Māori-medium education and the rest have no Māori-language education.
New Zealand Government use of Māori domain names
The New Zealand Government is directly responsible for the moderation policies of .govt.nz, .parliament.nz and .cri.nz, and it can strongly influence how .school.nz and .ac.nz are used.
In 1986 the Waitangi Tribunal found that te reo Māori is a taonga, and that the Treaty obliges the Crown to recognise and protect it. In its report on the te reo Māori claim (Wai 11), the Tribunal said:
The evidence and argument has made it clear to us that by the Treaty the Crown did promise to recognise and protect the language and that that promise has not been kept. The ‘guarantee’ in the Treaty requires affirmative action to protect and sustain the language, not a passive obligation to tolerate its existence and certainly not a right to deny its use in any place. It is, after all, the first language of the country, the language of the original inhabitants and the language in which the first signed copy of the Treaty was written. But educational policy over many years and the effect of the media in using almost nothing but English has swamped the Maori language and done it great harm.
Twenty-seven years later, the Government appeared to have overlooked the internet as a way to promote and strengthen te reo Māori. Many government departments have official Māori names, yet the .govt.nz policy made no provision for those names in web addresses. Macrons had been available in .nz domain names since 2010, and the policy still did not account for them.
The Government can also ask for new second-level domains to be created, as it did with .parliament.nz. It could use that ability to give the state a bilingual identity online, as the Māori Language Act and Te Tiriti o Waitangi would lead us to expect.
When a language is not used, the culture it carries is weakened too. The lack of te reo Māori in the structure of the domain name system arguably contributes to the lack of te reo Māori on the internet, and to the digital divide that has long affected Māori.
There was no use of te reo Māori at all in .cri.nz, .mil.nz or .parliament.nz.
Agencies and .maori.nz
Work and Income (WINZ). winz.maori.nz has been hijacked twice. The first time, the name was promptly returned to Work and Income, and the case was covered in the media. In 2013 it was hijacked again and used for derogatory purposes. Work and Income had 148 domain names registered across .govt.nz, .co.nz, .org.nz, .net.nz, .ac.nz and .school.nz. The notable exception was .maori.nz.
Ministry of Justice. The Ministry had nine domain names that use te reo Māori:
- 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
The Kaupapa Ture sites were the te reo Māori version of the “Our Constitution” website. The name itself was translated, but the Ministry did not use .maori.nz for it. A number of other names registered across several 2LDs also left out .maori.nz.
Learning Media (Te Pou Taki Kōrero). Learning Media used its Māori name, Te Pou Taki Kōrero, in .co.nz.
Ministry for Culture and Heritage (Manatū Taonga). The Ministry used its bilingual name for its main website: both manatutaonga.govt.nz and its macron version, manatūtaonga.govt.nz, took visitors to the te reo Māori version of the site. It also used .maori.nz for the bilingual title of another site, teopetaua28.maori.nz, for 28maoribattalion.org.nz. Although the Ministry correctly used the macron version in .govt.nz, its .māori.nz address had not been configured and landed on the registrar’s parked page.
Dot Kiwi
.kiwi is the worlds first GTLD (domain name) to consider Indigenous protection mechanisms and requirements by consulting with Māori prior to and after implementation. .kiwi also offered the bilingual .nz equivalent that was declined by .nz .kiwi was released in March 2014.
Strictly not an Indigenous Domain Name but it does use a Māori word “kiwi” which is a common term to describe New Zealanders. The application for .kiwi and their definition can be read at Section 18 a.
The then CEO and I had several discussions about the raft of issues Māori had in the .nz domain. Dot Kiwi offered a number of protection mechanisms and promotion for Māori prior to release of .kiwi
The criteria I suggested to.kiwi that was agreed to and implemented, that would offer maximum protection and promotion of Māori were:
- Protection of Māori god names
- Protection of all Iwi names
- Protection of the Māori .KIWI equivalents of some current .NZ 2LDs. (e.g. mahi.kiwi)
- Immediate support for macronised .KIWI domain names
I provided .kiwi with the list of Iwi and god names and equivalent translations of various .nz suffixes.
In a public statement .kiwi further showed their support for Māori with the following and to the media here.
We believe that these protective measures represent the first occasion of a gTLD registry recognising the value and significance of culturally sensitive strings. Additionally, a .KIWI domain name will be available with macronised vowels from day one, further improving the user experience of the only TLD capable of 100% Māori language domains.
We’re really excited about the opportunities made possible through the introduction of .KIWI domains, and believe we are only scratching the surface. Our next challenge is how we can innovate this space even more, and further promote the Māori language within domain names. This is unchartered territory within the gTLD space and we will be looking to NZMIS for assistance as we move forward . We would be particularly interested and welcoming of ideas from members of NZMIS.
Proposed bilingual names
| Kiwi domain | Alternative for |
| mahi.kiwi | .co.nz |
| ipu.kiwi | .net.nz |
| ropu.kiwi | .org.nz |
| rōpū.kiwi | .org.nz |
| kura.kiwi | .school.nz |
| wananga.kiwi | .ac.nz |
| maori.kiwi | .gen.nz |
| iwi.kiwi | iwi.nz |
With the membership of InternetNZ who proposed a new .kiwi.nz domain at the same time as the launch of .kiwi, there was little traction and appetite for the above.
How to cite this page
Taiuru, K. (2026, November 10). Māori Language in NZ Domain Names. Taiuru & Associates Ltd. https://www.taiuru.co.nz/maori-language-in-nz-domain-names/