Formed in 1991 Te Whakaruruhau o Ngā Reo Irirangi Māori, by virtue of its whakapapa, is an organisation committed to the revitalisation of tikanga and te reo Māori. The 1989 report of the Waitangi Tribunal on Wai 11, the Te Reo Māori claim, and the outcome of the 1994 Privy Council case regarding the sale of state-owned broadcasting assets had far-reaching consequences for Māori language in broadcasting.
Borne of struggle and systemic bias, Te Whakaruruhau o Ngā Reo Irirangi Māori serves as a monument to demonstrated courage during the critical Māori rights recognition period (1970 to 1990), and represents collective Māori and Māori language interests through its 20 member iwi radio stations.
Many of the 20 stations are increasingly moving from analogue to digital technologies that have the potential to supplant the conventions of radio broadcasting, at the ground level each station are using online streaming, video and social media platforms to extend their radio operation and audience reach into the tribal communities they represent. Each station is closely affiliated with the marae in their respective tribal broadcasting areas, and have over 30 years of trusted experience in providing access to Māori community media content, news and information.
Rather than communicate outwardly with non-Māori audiences, most stations prioritise serving the iwi and hapū they are affiliated with and the region they originate from. Over the last 30 years, each iwi radio station has developed a high level of trust in communities that they represent. As a result, Te Whakaruruhau is uniquely placed to act as a conduit or provide a portal in order for individual Māori communities to access information and training. More than 800 maraes throughout Aotearoa are the cultural and tribal business gathering places of the Māori communities in which they exist.
The purpose of Te Whakaruruhau o Ngā Reo Irirangi Māori is to encourage the use of te reo rangatiratanga me ngā tikanga Māori through iwi media and iwi radio. The iwi stations function both as a collective, tasked with the revitalisation of te reo Māori, and individual operations that serve the requirements of their communities, marae, whānau, hapū and iwi.
Te Whakaruruhau o Ngā Reo Irirangi Māori has a strong position on matters pertaining to data sovereignty, language processing, and technology platforms especially in the area of Māori language revitalisation. Our strong haukāinga and community connection and our governance of Māori data on behalf of these Māori communities compel us to advocate strongly for its protection, now and into the future.
A common problem with data science today is that there are scientists working on Māori data, and they are not accountable or don't feel accountable for the results of their use of that data. Iwi radio stations are the respective kaitiaki of the data they gather on behalf of their respective whānau, hapū and iwi. We've learnt that trust is extremely important in community work and Māori language broadcasting in a haukāinga context especially if you are asking a community for their data to enable content creation. Accountability goes hand in hand with trust.
Accountability means ensuring we do the right thing where Māori data is concerned. The marae and haukāinga hold us accountable if we fail to act in their best interests. Accountability does not mean accepting the points of view of members of the government established Māori Media Review Panel. Accountability means we challenge those views that are at odds with the position of the Māori language communities that our iwi stations belong to. If iwi radio data is going to be used for development and innovation it must be agreed to by iwi stations and not Government Departments.
At Te Whakaruruhau o Ngā Reo Irirangi Māori, we have a significant responsibility to advocate for the safety and protection of Māori language acoustic data. For us, developing world-class indigenous language digital leadership in data governance requires that academics and developers must understand the levels of trust and accountability that comes with the privilege of having access to Māori language data.
Repositories for iwi radio data and Māori language corpus must be developed with iwi radio and not for iwi radio by Government consultants. Our community expects these initiatives to be led by iwi radio. It's too common that outsiders are the ones doing academic research on indigenous data without making the connections to the communities that data belongs to and with.
Te Whakaruruhau is a Charitable organisation that seeks to inspire indigenous communities globally to also consider the current and future economic opportunities that data presents for them. This will be a significant paradigm shift for research and development. Therefore, our kaupapa will continue looking into building strong connections between indigenous communities throughout the world and enabling a new generation of community-led science and innovation in the area of language revitalisation.