Opinion: Why we need to map the Māori tech sector and the report that backs it up

AgriSea won one of the technology sector's most sought-after accolades - the NZ Hi-Tech Award as Māori company of the year.

OPINION

Dr Karaitiana Taiuru, the invited guest editor of the ground-breaking “Mapping the Māori Tech Sector Research” report, says that this report is a clear indicator that the Government has failed Māori in terms of both employment and educational opportunities for Māori within the Tech sector.

This report gives the Government a clear pathway to map the historical inequities and help Māori thrive in the tech sector.

Tech in New Zealand was a new industry more than 23 years ago that could have given Māori and all minorities an opportunity for equity in employment and tech businesses, but we saw a digital divide, with Māori on one side and non-Māori on the digital side.

Dr Karaitiana Taiuru. Photo / Supplied

Despite this, when myself and others identified Māori were in a digital divide and provided a number of recommendations to bridge that gap to increase more Māori participation in the Māori tech sector, the Government ignored them. Our report shows that these historical recommendations caused intergenerational societal discrimination and the lack of Māori in the tech sector today.

It is very clear that the Government and the tech sector need to implement the recommendations and key findings in the “Mapping the Māori Tech Sector Research” report and to think out of the square, to be brave and to enable rapid and systemic change within the tech industry. Be good ancestors!

The world is at the crossroads of a new digital (r)evolution with artificial intelligence which will impact Māori society and Māori tech quicker and more powerfully than the internet and world wide web being introduced in the 1980s and 1990s, which we are still experiencing the fallout from due to Māori being ignored.

Among the immediate recommendations and findings identified in the report, is that we want to see the Crown honour and action their Te Tiriti obligations and the Waitangi Tribunal decisions with WAI 226 and WAI 2522, and use their role to enable and power the Māori tech sector through establishing a Māori chief data and digital steward whose role would be to advocate, protect, direct and influence government decision-making with Māori data and Māori tech.

We also want to see the Crown invest in a Te Tiriti-centric tech unit and team to implement Te Tiriti complaint systems that will benefit Māori and reduce inequities with Māori data across the Crown sector.

If the Government chooses to again ignore these recommendations and findings, Māori participation in the tech sector will diminish resulting in significant economic loss and Māori will face a new wave of colonisation. This will be a further, but very clear Te Tiriti breach.

Dr Karaitiana Taiuru (Ngāi Tahu, Ngāti Kahungunu and Ngāti Toa) is a Mātauranga Māori and Kaupapa Māori authority including normalising and integrating New Zealand’s two constitutional documents He Whakaputanga and Te Tiriti into commercial, academic, and NGOs.