COMMUNITY PROJECT #411 - DIGITAL WHAKAPAPA ARCHIVE
Mission Statement:
To assert digital sovereignty over our "Digital Flesh" by establishing secure, marae-hosted servers that preserve oral histories, ancestral records, and photos for future generations.
The Needs Assessment:
Currently, much of our whānau history is stored on foreign-owned "Babylonian" servers (Facebook, Google, iCloud). This is a form of digital colonialism where our most sacred data—our whakapapa—is commodified and disconnected from the whenua. Furthermore, as our kaumātua pass away, we face a "Semantic Entropy" where oral histories are lost forever if not captured in a sovereign environment.
Core Objectives:
Install sovereign, high-security server nodes at three pilot marae within the first six months
Digitise and metadata-tag 1,000 historical photos and documents under a Kaitiakitanga License.
Record and archive 20 long-form oral history interviews with local kaumātua.
Train 10 rangatahi as "Digital Kaitiaki" to manage the server infrastructure and assist whānau with archiving.
Stakeholder Map:
Marae Trustees: Providing the physical space and cultural oversight for the servers.
Whānau Historians: The keepers of physical photos and documents.
Digital Tohunga: Tech professionals providing the open-source architecture and security.
Iwi/Hapū Authorities: To ensure data sovereignty aligns with wider regional strategies.
The "Impact" Model:
This initiative builds "Social Negentropy" by securing our cultural memory against the decay of time and corporate platform shifts. It is sustained through a "Cultural Tithe" model where whānau contribute a small annual amount for secure storage, and it is powered by local solar grids to ensure the "Digital Flesh" is always accessible, even during external network failures.
Engagement Strategy:
We will launch "Scanning Days" at the marae, inviting whānau to bring their old shoe-boxes of photos for digitisation. We will frame the project as a "Digital Waka," ensuring our stories travel safely into the future without being intercepted by outside interests.
Resource Requirements:
3 high-capacity, encrypted NAS (Network Attached Storage) server units.
Professional-grade photo and document scanners.
High-fidelity audio/video recording equipment for oral histories.
Secure, local mesh-network hardware for marae-wide access.
Timeline of Action:
Week 1: Finalise the open-source software stack and data-governance protocols (Kaitiakitanga License).
Week 2: Setup the first server node at the pilot marae and test the security firewall.
Week 3: Host a "Kaitiaki Training Wānanga" for the 10 youth volunteers.
Week 4: Official "First Scan" event—inviting the eldest member of the hapū to archive their first photo.
Mauri Assessment
Te Taiao (Environment): 0 — Minimal physical impact, though mitigated by using low-power, solar-connected servers.
Te Ahurea (Culture): +2 — Directly protects and preserves whakapapa, restoring sovereign control over cultural intellectual property.
Te Tangata (Social): +2 — Creates a shared sense of identity and prevents the trauma of lost cultural memory.
Te Pūtea (Economic): +1 — Protects the "Value" of indigenous data and prevents capital flight to foreign cloud storage providers.
