Who am I and why did I start The Quantum Whakapapa Project?

I used to measure variances in a spreadsheet. Now I measure the Mauri of the Cosmos.

Kia ora, I'm Dave. For over a decade, my world was defined by numbers. As a Business Performance Analyst and Supply Chain expert for major organisations like National Foods (Australia), Fletcher Building and Refining NZ, I became skilled at using the latest technologies such as Enterprise Resource Planning to optimise the economics of a range of industries from bio-products to food production to building products to petroleum products.

I was trained in the Newtonian worldview, the predominant Western worldview, which regards the universe like a clockwork machine, a series of discrete data points to be optimised. If the numbers add up, we’re winning. It was when I was studying accounting at Northtec as an adult, that I realised that the standard economic models were incomplete. They were "Bad Explanations." They could measure profit (Chrematistics), but they couldn't measure Mauri or Wairua.

I saw first-hand how an extractive economy functions as a "Leaky Bucket," exporting the embodied energy of the land while leaving the social fabric to fray. I realised that a spreadsheet can tell you the price of a tree, but it cannot tell you the value of the forest to the people who stand in its shade. The metrics were blind to the most critical variables of existence: connection, vitality, and spiritual integrity.

The insight that changed everything was the realisation that our standard Western economics is a "low reach" system. It treats resources as isolated objects. In my research, I found that the frontiers of Quantum Physics—specifically the concept of Entanglement—actually prove what our ancestors always knew: we live in a Woven Universe.

Driven to use my skills for our people, I moved into the Not-For-Profit sector, serving as General Manager for Taimahi Trust, Executive Officer for Taitokerau Education Trust, Finance Manager for 155 Whare Awhina and Taitokerau Community Law, and holding governance roles with Parafed Northland and Steelsands Credit Union and Taitokerau Education Trust. Seeing the struggle on the ground made it clear: we don't just have a money problem in Taitokerau; we have an ontological problem. We are running a 21st-century society on a 19th-century operating system. We are trying to cultivate a garden using the logic of a machine.

I won’t get into it now but I also went through personal struggle that tipped my world on it’s head and I’m fortunate to still be here thanks to the grace of God (Yahweh/Io), a loving family and friends, and a challenge from a Kaumātua.

The Quantum Whakapapa Project was born from this personal journey. By synthesising the "Universal Explainer" framework of David Deutsch with the Kaitiakitanga of Ngāpuhi, a powerful pattern emerged.

We are moving from being consumers of a broken system to being Universal Constructors of a regenerative one. This means applying the right knowledge to solve our local challenges—like using agrivoltaics to harvest the photon or restoring the mauri of Lake Ōmāpere through biomanipulation. It means recognising that the "Scientific Method" and the "Whare Wānanga" are two paths up the same mountain.

My call to action for you is simple

Stop viewing yourself as a cog in a machine and start viewing yourself as a node in the web. Explore the research here, look at the connections between our Northland history and the future of physics, and ask yourself: how can I strengthen the weave of my own community today? The numbers only matter if they serve the narrative of life.

Authorship & Methodology

Principal Investigator: David Hovell, Strategic Analyst & Lead Researcher, The Quantum Whakapapa Project

Ko wai au?

I’m an uri of Ngāpuhi, descended from Rahiri via my 4 x great-grandfather Pōmare I, the original rangatira of Ngāti Manu. I also whakapapa to Ngāti Porou (Te Araroa) and Tainui (Paeroa and Ngāruawāhia) by blood, and to Ngāti Raukatauri / Tamaaterau (Kennedy Bay / Papaaroha) by whāngai.

On my mother’s side I’m descended from the Albertlanders, a group of non-conformist English settlers who arrived in the 1860s to establish a cooperative, classless community in the Kaipara district. They aimed to build a "New Zion" through shared values and agricultural enterprise, leaving a legacy of communal resilience near Wellsford.

My family was living in North Hokianga when I was born, specifically a little settlement called Manukau. We moved to Mitimiti for a short time, then to Te Hapua—the birthplace of Matiu Rata and the start of the 1975 Land March—where I did my primary schooling before moving to Kaitaia for high school. Aside from 10 years in Auckland and Melbourne, I’ve been in Taitokerau my whole life. 

I’m now based in Maungatapere and work part time in Whangārei as a Finance Manager in the kaupapa Māori healthcare and social services space, and do additional accounting and governance mahi on the side. I’m a practising Christian and have tolerance and love for people of all faiths. (I’m not here to try and convert anyone, I just mention this as it’s an important part of who I am.)

Working independently

I have no financial backing for this project, and intend to keep it that way because I want it to be purely from my heart. I’m doing this work simply because I believe it’s the right thing to do. After working for corporations and seeing the damage caused to our tāngata and whenua in the North by our rigged economic and social systems, I wanted to envision something better and "observe" it into reality.

My identity and values

• Identity: Tangata whenua, born, raised, and living in Taitokerau.

• Spiritual grounding: Guided by Christian faith and Wairua Tapu. This spiritual grounding drives a commitment to peace, love, and goodwill to mankind. (I haven’t always followed this path; my spiritual walk has been a meandering journey of discovery.)

• Equity over Growth: Focus on "how the pie is shared." View social investment as a long-term ROI for the community.

• Grassroots Agency: Real progress comes from whānau, iwi/hapū, and local action. "Fixing the soil" (root causes) is a collective responsibility. Relying on the government is feeble and limiting.

• Universal Humanity: While rooted in faith and the North, I believe in the "human race" as one.

Declaration of Intent

This mahi has been undertaken under the authority of, and for the benefit of, the author’s whakapapa—past, present, and future. It serves as an assertion of intellectual and spiritual sovereignty, operationalising the "Universal Explainer" capability of the Ngāpuhi worldview. It rejects the deficit narratives imposed by colonial observation and instead collapses the wave function of our reality into one of abundance, resilience, and connection.

Methodology Statement

The method I use to problem solve is based largely on a synthesis of the works of David Deutsch on Quantum Physics (basically that branch of physics that attempts to explain the aspects of the universe that traditional science could not); Mātauranga Māori, specifically the published works of Rev. Maori Marsden, a student of the Whare Wānanga o Ngāpuhi from Awanui; and the teachings of Christ as recorded in the four Gospels. I acknowledge that Christianity has been hijacked and interfered with since its inception for political and economic gain, and I specifically reject all resulting theology and dogma and see it as a series of harmful deceipts. I do my best to refer to early translations and strip out political and cultural bias. Finally, I run everything through the Mauri Model invented by Dr Kepa Morgan, a respected Maori engineer. If it doesn’t pass the Mauri-o-meter, it doesn’t make the cut.

All content is either:

• The original work of the above stated author; or

• Was synthesised using the Quantum Whakapapa AI Agent (a custom "Digital Tohunga") to process complex datasets through the specific ethical lenses of the Mauri Model and Indigenous Ekonomia. While artificial intelligence assists in the retrieval and structuring of information, the arrangement, prompt engineering, theoretical architecture, and final validation of this work are the original intellectual creation of the author (in accordance with the New Zealand Copyright Act 1994).