TE ŌHANGA MAURI - PRIORITY #7 - RECLAIM OUR DIGITAL SOVEREIGNTY
Protecting Our "Digital Flesh"
In the modern world, data is the new whenua (land). However, Taitokerau currently faces a "Second Wave of Colonisation" in the digital space. Global tech corporations are scraping Māori language, stories, and knowledge—what we call "Digital Flesh"—to train their AI models without our consent or even asking. This strips our knowledge of its Mauri and its connection to our people.
At the same time, we face a "Digital Divide". Many of our whānau in the North have slower internet and less access to technology, which keeps us locked in the physical economy while the rest of the world moves into the digital future. We believe that our data is a taonga (treasure) to be stewarded, not a commodity to be stolen.
10 Steps to Digital Sovereignty
We can fix the soil of our digital world and ensure our knowledge remains in our hands with these actionable steps:
Adopt the Kaitiakitanga License: Use legal frameworks that treat our data as a taonga to be stewarded, ensuring value always flows back to our community.
Build Sovereign AI: Support local tools like Papa Reo that are trained on ethically sourced Māori data and serve our own people first.
Bridge the Connectivity Gap: Invest in high-speed internet across the North to remove the "resistance" in our regional economy.
Create a Sovereign Cloud: Establish local data storage that is governed by Māori ethics and laws, keeping our "Digital Flesh" safe from unconsented scraping.
Train Digital Tohunga: Provide our rangatahi with high-level tech skills so they can be the creators and guardians of our digital future.
Stop Unconsented Scraping: Challenge global tech companies that use indigenous knowledge to train their models without permission.
Ethical Data Sourcing: Ensure all data used in our regional projects is collected with full consent and respect for its cultural context.
Direct Value Back to Source: Create models where any money made from Māori data goes back into funding local education and marae.
Build "Digital Pā": Create secure online spaces where our whānau can share and preserve knowledge without fear of it being stolen or misused.
Use the Mauri Model for Tech: Evaluate every new digital project based on whether it protects our culture and empowers our people (+2 Mauri Ora).
Making It Happen
Key Stakeholders: Te Hiku Media (leaders in Māori AI), local Iwi and Hapū authorities, and regional technology partners.
Theoretical Minimum Time Frame: 3 to 5 years to build local cloud infrastructure and scale our sovereign AI tools.
Who benefits from things staying as they are?: Global tech corporations ("Big Tech") who extract our knowledge for free and use it to build wealth for their shareholders.
Who benefits from this solution?: Our whānau who gain digital access, our cultural guardians who see our stories protected, and our future generations who will own their own digital destiny.
