We are pleased to announce an upcoming webinar on April 17 at 2 PM Pacific/AZ, featuring Te Pā Tūwatawata— a distributed storage network that Māori have designed in Aotearoa New Zealand to empower their tribal nations and communities to collect, store, protect, access, and control their own data.
This world-first data storage infrastructure is led by the Te Kāhui Raraunga Charitable Trust (TKR), which aims to create a unique data storage system that promotes sovereignty over data and digital futures. Esteemed Māori data sovereignty leaders and advocates from TKR will showcase this groundbreaking data storage solution developed by Māori tribes for Māori tribes. Partnership opportunities for Indigenous Peoples in the United States will be discussed.
(Te Arawa – Tūhourangi, Ngāti Whakaue)
Ms Mikaere is a leading Māori data specialist focused on harnessing information to empower indigenous community development. She is currently the lead technical advisor to the Aotearoa New Zealand National Iwi (Tribal) Chairs Forum – Data Leadership Group and leads Te Kāhui Raraunga.
(Kāi Tahu, Kāti Māmoe, Waitaha)
Chris is Kaihuawaere Matihiko at Catalyst IT. With over 28 years’ experience in open source software, he led development of the Koha library system and now focuses on Māori data sovereignty, advocating for ethical data governance through his work with Te Kāhui Raraunga.
(Tūhourangi, Ngāti Whakaue)
Erena is founder of Waihuia Group, a New Zealand consulting company and co-founder of software companies Identity Connection Evolution, and Indigenous Data Flow. For Te Kāhui Raraunga, Erena leads a team of Māori engineers to serve tribal aspirations in data and digital sovereignty.
Registration is now open to leaders, staff, and delegates (e.g., contractors),of Tribal Nations and Indigenous Peoples in the US; the island territories; Hawaii; Alaska nonprofits; and Alaska Native Corporations. (Leaders may delegate staff or others to attend on their behalf.)
“With this kaupapa, we’re housing the data where it belongs, under the safe protection of the people it means the most to. Additionally, with Te Pā Tūwatawata being located onshore and owned by us, it meets the principles of Iwi Māori Data Sovereignty at the highest levels,” says Ms. Kirikowhai Mikaere, a panelist for the webinar and the lead technician for the Data ILG and Te Kāhui Raraunga.
The April webinar is a collaborative effort involving the US Indigenous Data Sovereignty Network, the Indigenous Data Exchange, the Collaboratory for Indigenous Data Governance, the Equity for Indigenous Research and Innovation Coordinating Hub (ENRICH), the Data Warriors Lab, the Native Biodata Consortium, the Indigenous Land and Data Stewards Lab, and the IndigeLab Network.