Te Kete o Karaitiana Taiuru (Blog)

.nz bilingual Domain Name System

We live in a country with two official spoken languages. Our country is known by both its English and Māori names. Aotearoa/New Zealand. Our national mountains are known by their bilingual names. “Aoraki/Mt Cook”, Taranaki/Mt Egmont” and the list goes on.

NZ has bilingual sign posts, government departments, schools, early childhood facilities and much more that shows we are a bilingual country.

Anyone can appear in court and speak Māori and speak only Māori to the Police etc. My passport is bilingual.

Our New Zealand Rugby team the All Blacks perform a Haka prior to each game and when anyone says “Kia ora” we all know what it means. Our recent immigrants also know and use the words “Kia ora”.

When ever i am overseas everyone knows where Māori come from and all most always refer to the Haka or say “kia ora”!.

We have a bilingual version of Microsoft Windows and Office, Linux in the creation and Apple have considered bilingual software and Google have a Māori version almost completed. Yet, in a bilingual country such ours, we have a non bilingual Domain Name hierarchy.

We have .iwi.nz which was dreamed up by non Māori and did not adequately serve its community of interest for many years, and we have .maori.nz which we lobbyed, for several years and at great financial ex pence to one individual Ross Himona.

In the very least i would like to see InternetNZ and the DNC offer a bilingual system where the Māori version of a 2LD is forwarded to the English domain. If it attracts the masses then fully integrate the new bilingual name system.

Alas, i do not see any change in the foreseeable future with those dictating our Internet governance in NZ. We will hear arguments that it is racist, it will pollute the DNS and cause confusion, that they are not bound by statute or the treaty to offer such a gesture of a equality.

In the meantime we have Māori schools called Kura Kaupapa Māori utilising .school.nz as opposed to .kura.nz . Even their school buses have “Kura” on the external signs and not “School”.

Kōhanga Reo are utilising .org.nz as opposed to .kohanga . In the early days of Kōhanga they were even denied the right to use .org.nz as they were not an organisation in the eyes of the Internet governance people of the time.

The reality of the above ignorance which i know many call racism (a word i do not use lightly) is that we have Māori in New Zealand who have created an Alternative DNS which will support Māori language and culture on the Internet.

The alternative DNS, i am certain will pollute the .nz DNS and cause wide spread confusion and perhaps tarnish the international reputation of .nz . But this is a classical case of indigenous cyber protest of which no longer are Māori protesting on the streets, they are protesting on the Internet to obtain a birth right.

DISCLAIMER: This post is the personal opinion of Dr Karaitiana Taiuru and is not reflective of the opinions of any organisation that Dr Karaitiana Taiuru is a member of or associates with, unless explicitly stated otherwise.

6 responses to “.nz bilingual Domain Name System”

  1. Anonymous Avatar
    Anonymous

    You, Ross and NZMIS should get onto this important kaupapa.

  2. Anonymous Avatar
    Anonymous

    You, Ross and NZMIS should get onto this important kaupapa.

  3. Steven Avatar
    Steven

    Karaitiana,

    At the time you put forward maori.nz I told you you should actually request a te reo version of all the existing 2LD’s in .nz. You at the time declined to do this.

    You can still request this and yet you do not. The process is in place to handle 2LD requests. We both were on the working group that changed the policy you have as more knowledge about this than most!

    PS a technical issue does occur for macron’s in the DNS but this can be over come in due course.

  4. Steven Avatar
    Steven

    Karaitiana,

    At the time you put forward maori.nz I told you you should actually request a te reo version of all the existing 2LD’s in .nz. You at the time declined to do this.

    You can still request this and yet you do not. The process is in place to handle 2LD requests. We both were on the working group that changed the policy you have as more knowledge about this than most!

    PS a technical issue does occur for macron’s in the DNS but this can be over come in due course.

  5. Karaitiana Avatar
    Karaitiana

    Steven,

    At the time of .maori.nz application it was not a feasible option to ask for a bilingual .nz DNS. It was difficult enough and expensive for just .maori.nz .

    NZMIS, the Internet and Maori participation has since matured to a level where is is now a feasible option.

    The technical issue for macrons is in the next post.

  6. Karaitiana Avatar
    Karaitiana

    Steven,

    At the time of .maori.nz application it was not a feasible option to ask for a bilingual .nz DNS. It was difficult enough and expensive for just .maori.nz .

    NZMIS, the Internet and Maori participation has since matured to a level where is is now a feasible option.

    The technical issue for macrons is in the next post.

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