Wayfinding in the Digital Realm
No time to write like the present.
For the past couple of years I’ve been quietly working on a way of helping people understand technology through a Māori lens.
Not by simplifying it.
Not by translating English terms into Māori.But by rethinking the metaphor entirely.
Te Ao Matihiko literally means The Digital Realm.
What if we imagined that realm as an ocean?
Within that ocean sit Ngā Motu Matihiko – the Digital Islands.
Each motu represents a place to learn, create, discover, innovate and contribute.
- Software development
- Cybersecurity
- Artificial Intelligence
- Creative technologies
- Quantum
- Data
- Infrastructure
- Education
- Sustainability
- Space
And many more.
Some people will spend their lives on one motu.
Others will voyage between them, carrying knowledge, relationships and new ideas from one island to another.
Like our tūpuna, we navigate not simply by destination, but by values.
That’s why I think the heart of this framework shouldn’t be technology at all.
At the centre sits Tikanga Matihiko.
Our values.
Our ethics.
Our stewardship.From this central motu flow the currents that nourish every other island.
Because technology without values is simply capability. Technology with values becomes possibility.
This isn’t intended to be another technology framework.
It’s becoming an Indigenous wayfinding framework for navigating the Digital Realm.
One that I hope helps rangatahi see possibility, helps educators teach connection rather than silos, helps industry recognise the relationships between technologies, and reminds us all that innovation is ultimately about people.
We’re still building.
I’d love to hear your whakaaro.
What motu do you live on?
And which one are you curious to voyage to next?
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