Koi te mata punenga | Innovative research

MBIE has funded the Tikanga in Technology (TinT) research programme. Our programme will address the challenge of data classification, provenance, and valuation when sharing Indigenous data across systems. Drawing on Māori tikanga relating to the creation, protection, and sharing of knowledge, we will develop technologies to support wise decision-making through data governance.

Data science is creating an immersive digitally enabled society and the challenge for Indigenous communities is to thrive within this digital future. The opportunity lies both in embedding a Te Ao Māori conceptual lens into data analytics, artificial intelligence, machine learning, and visualisation, and in using these methods to enhance Māori distinctiveness.

Click here for more information on the Tikanga in Technology project and the Whāki Webinar Series.

This project is jointly funded by Science for Technological Innovation (SfTI) National Science Challenge and Genomics Aotearoa. It explores Māori rights and interests with respect to Māori data, genomic data and mātauranga Māori. The research considers the various national legislation and international agreements that comprise New Zealand’s Intellectual Property Rights regime (IPR).  A report has recently been released by Te Kotahi Research Intitute regarding Māori IP.

Understanding  Māori Rights and Interests in Intellectual Property arising from Research and Innovation., 

Project funded by TPK to support NZ based beta testing for the Local Contexts Hub, the Development of Online Educational Resources, and Piloting Use-Cases with Iwi (Whakatōhea, Te Roroa, Ngāti Maru, Te Kāhui o Taranaki Iwi Trust). Participation in launch of Local Contexts Indigenous Communities working group.

A grant has been approved to support ENRICH to scale up the TK/BC Labels Initiative with NYU. The goals of the Planning Grant are to ensure:

1. Indigenous communities have a clear understanding and culturally appropriate pathways for using the Local Contexts Hub for developing their TK Labels;
2. Communities, researchers, and institutions have accessible information and instruction for using the platform for the ethical and responsible early identification of Indigenous rights and interests, creating long term capacity for engaging with Indigenous communities on collections;
3. Collections managers and institutions understand and can initiate use of the platform for identifying and making findable Indigenous collections and data for Indigenous communities alongside managing ethical accessibility to their Indigenous collections

This internship project focuses on the development of a model data sovereignty agreement for tribal users of Traditional Knowledge Labels and Biocultural Labels within the Local Contexts Hub. This will involve drafting an agreement will allow outline key IDSov principles around the use of data within the Local Contexts Hub. It will explain the authorised uses of the Traditional Knowledge and Biocultural Label icons used by Iwi, making clear the rights that each Iwi retains over the unique text that accompanies their labels.

Maui Hudson is the VM lead for the Veracity Spearhead Project (led by Victoria) for SfTI focusing on Veracity in the context of decentralised systems.  The project includes conceptual approaches to tagging Māori data using Traditional Knowledge Labels (TK Labels) in order to identify and trace traditional knowledge that can be applied to indigenous cultures across the world. The Veracity Spearhead research project will help develop the technical data science solutions to maintain transparency and veracity around Māori provenance as it moves through the data ecosystems using the TK labels and includes an Indigenous Data TK/BC labels use-case.

Masters scholarship

Collaborative project with School of Computing and Mathematical Sciences to identify the specific information needs and search habits of Māori children. The project will involve observation studies of tamariki conducting internet search in three Kura Kaupapa in Hamilton. These studies will provide insights into similarities and differences in information practices of school children in Māori medium schools compared to public schools. It will also identify the characteristics of Māori information needs that must be addressed by tailored search engines with culturally specific user groups and develop the Q-Engine software necessary for internet search in Te Reo Māori environments. TKRI is part of the advisory team to the lead researcher.

The Moana Project is an MBIE-funded programme led by MetService to improve our understanding of coastal ocean circulation, connectivity and marine heatwaves to provide information that supports sustainable growth of the seafood industry (Māori, fisheries and aquaculture).

Project partners will build bridges to ensure this new knowledge informs regional marine policy and management. TKRI leads the He Papa Moana research theme which anchors the project in mātauranga Māori, facilitating exchange of oceanographic knowledge between Te Ao Māori and western science in collaboration with Whakatōhea Māori Trust Board.

This MBIE-funded project led by Plant & Food Research aims to accelerate plant breeding using gene-editing technologies. TKRI is leading the research aim developing the  co-innovation interface which explores Māori perspectives on gene-editing and the potential for gene-editing tools to contribute to Māori outcomes.

Nature Article:  https://www.nature.com/articles/s41599-022-01104-9

The Minderoo Foundation funds the ENRICH Global Chairs Initiative which supports Indigenous and allied scholars to undertake three months of network building, outreach and ENRICH vision initiatives within their national and regional contexts. The ENRICH Global Chairs will also build infrastructure for regional hubs through engagements and topic-based workshops, talks with researchers, agencies and communities.

The ENRICH Global Chairs for 2020/2021 are Professor Maggie Walter (University of Tasmania) and Associate Professor Jane Anderson (New York University). Assistant Professor Stephanie Carroll (University of Arizona) and Associate Professor Maui Hudson (University of Waikato) are designated Global Chairs for 2021. The Minderoo Foundation funds two Global Chairs annually (2020-2024).

Breast Cancer Foundation 

We conducted an evaluation of the Breast Cancer Register’s operating standards using the Maori  Data Audit Tool.