An interdisciplinary Māori academic activist. Areas of interest include: Artificial Intelligence (AI) Ethics; Colonisation; Data Sovereignty; Genomic ethics; Property Rights & Tikanga Māori.
Ngāi Tahu (Koukourarata, Puketeraki, Rāpaki, Taumutu, Tūāhuriri, Waewae, Waihao, Waihopai, Wairewa); Ngāti Rārua; Ngāti Kahungunu (Ngāti Pāhauwera); Ngāti Hikairo (Ngāti Taiuru); Tūwharetoa (Tamakopiri); Ngāti Hauiti (Ngāti Haukaha); Ngāti Whitikaupeka.
My career spans the past 25 years in the ICT industry and with Maori property rights.I have been involved as an advocate and proponent for digital Māori rights, cultural appropriation, data sovereignty/digital colonialism, te reo Māori revitalisation with technology, Māori representation and Intellectual Property Rights for the past 24 years. In more recent times raising tikanga Māori and mātauranga Māori awareness issues.
I am well versed in Maori culture, tikanga, te ao Māori and how those rights and beliefs are applied to the digital world.
Some career highlights include:
* Author of the worlds first Indigenous ethics guidelines for: AI, Algorithms, Data and IOT (2020)
* Author of a major ICT/Social media Dictionary of the Māori Language with over 375,000 translations (2016)
* Compiled a list and analysis of Māori ICT organisations, thus expelling many industry myths and concerns (2016)
* Author of the definition “Digital Colonialism” (2015)
* Analysed .govt.nz web sites for their inability to recognise te reo Māori
* Major leader to push for the Creative Commons licenses to be translated into te reo Māori (2015)
* Ensured a sensitive list of Māori names were reserved in the .kiwi domain (2013)
* Proposer and advocate for macrons in .nz domain names and .māori.nz (2010)
* Author of the charter to create the USENET group .nz.soc.maori (2003)
* Author of the successful .maori.nz proposal which lead to the world’s first Indigenous language domain name (2002)
* Creator of the free Māori spell checker Te Ngutu Kura (2001)
* .iwi.nz moderator (2000)
* Author of the first electronic Māori Dictionary Te Reo Tupu, a compilation of all major dictionaries. (1998)
* Ensuring Māori could be written on computers and the web, Māori language tools, a myriad of publications (1997)
Online CV here