Technology is the future of Aotearoa, and Māori need to be a part of it
Māori have a long but mostly unrecognised, tāhuhu kōrero (history) of imaginative innovation and comprehension of new technologies. Sails that were used by our ancestors to traverse the pacific were lateen (triangular shaped) and held many advantages over sails used by Europeans at the time. The designs of our waka hulls reduced drag, making for faster boats. Our ingenuity exists even within our mythology, with Maui fashioning a weapon and a fishhook from his grandmother’s jawbone. This ingenuity has since been muted, silenced, and reduced to a whisper following the effects of colonisation. Māori inclusion within the tech world is both underrepresented and in demand, but barriers to technology have limited our people’s ability to take part in a digital future. Māori are less likely to have internet access due to the cost, and the same goes for devices. Caleb (Ngāti Maniapoto), who studies Computer Science, noted that “our family getting a computer was one of the most important things to happen to me as a kid”. Growing up in Te Kuiti, he notes that “I would’ve been stuck there” had it not been for that family computer. After discussing with our tuākana, Caleb concluded that having access to that piece of technology allowed him to grow and learn things he would otherwise have never known.
Kristen (Ngāpuhi, Ngāti Pūkenga) told us of how her art teacher sponsored her by paying for her Adobe Creative Cloud subscription. “Mrs McKenna paid for me to be able to use Photoshop, a lovely old Pākehā lady who wasn’t too familiar with digital art but understood that I could do something special for myself.” It was through this that Kristen was able to get a scholarship to UoA. “By being here, I was able to learn what I want to do with my life.I’ll be moving to AUT to study Communication Design, and that wouldn’t be possible without Mrs McKenna.” Kristen feels that by paying for that subscription, Mrs McKenna “supplied me with the tools to shape my future, one that I would never have had.
“Only now am I learning how to use Photoshop and fully operate a camera, things that were always in my potential and ability but were never able to foster due to access. What could I have been if I had access to these things at a younger age? Could some of my people trapped in poverty have become the next Cartier-Bresson or Wozniak if cost and accessibility hadn’t been such a big barrier for them?”
Māori inclusion within the tech world is both underrepresented and in demand, but barriers to technology have limited our people’s ability to take part in a digital future.
The COVID-19 pandemic has only exacerbated the cracks in an already broken inclusion system. Internet access has arguably become a necessity during Covid, with communication, work, and education being done from home. Aiko Consultants Limited reported that 145,000 children did not have internet access when going into our first lockdown. Digital-first and online-by-default education strategies are, unfortunately, marginalising some whānau. It has meant that finding solutions for digitally excluded individuals has to become a priority. As you’d expect, digital exclusion is worse for Māori than other populations, according to Motu Economic and Public Policy research. This is partly due to our people living more rurally, specifically kaumatua living in isolated areas while also being of low-socioeconomic background. This barrier to tech has reinforced the already present barriers to education.
With Māori/NZ history finally being taught in schools and Covid’s effect on how we go about education, our people become subjugated and are placed at the intersections of so many issues and debates. This includes our position within this digital world. In terms of tech, Māori are significantly underrepresented, with our people being only 4 percent of the sector’s workforce. Māori begin to miss out on an industry whose median salary is ever increasing. If we miss out now, the equity gap will continue to grow. It is not hard to see the pipeline from the lack of technology education and the unaffordability and inaccessability of technology, to an underrepresented indigenous tech workforce. The inequitable number of Māori in the tech sector means wealth and prospects bypass our people and whānau, leading to potentially intergenerational consequences.
Over the past few months, the discussion around tech growth within Aotearoa has become a major discussion. The Government has proposed extensive changes to how it supports tech sector growth in Aotearoa to facilitate diversity. These proposals include actions that empower Māori to increase our participation in a growing section. Minister for Digital Economy and Communications, David Clark, said that “building Māori participation” is a priority.
Given the right tools, Māori can be more capable than anyone. Digital access for our people is an important issue that demands more attention and means that we wait, hoping for change. Tech access and internet affordability are issues that need to be tackled to reduce inequity. If these barriers to tech and education are removed, our people will gain the ability to shape the digital future of Aotearoa. Our history then becomes our future, and Māori are able to continue a long history of ingenious innovation and comprehension of new technologies.