Māori activism and hidden achievements in New Zealand’s Internet Domain Name System.

A new online publication outlining 20 years of activism and achievements by Māori who have fought for the right to be to be fairly represented in the New Zealand Internet Domain Name System is now available.

Despite some major achievements on the Internet by Māori that attracted national and international attention and praise, these achievements are largely missing from books and articles documenting the history of the Internet in New Zealand.

The ability to use iwi.nz and maori.nz and the orthographically correct .māori.nz and macrons are among the achievements.

Simple rights such as recognition that Māori is an official language of New Zealand, disputes of tribal names being used by non iwi groups and the ability for anyone to register offensive and racist names are among issues that have never been resolved, despite many attempts and lobbying.

Likewise, It has become common to think that .maori.nz was the words first Indigenous Domain Name, while ignoring the fact that Native American sovereign states were in fact the first.

Also included in the research is statistical usage of Māori language in domain names and how the New Zealand Government utilise their own bilingual names on the Internet, alternative domain name options and Māori language statistics.

The online publication is authored by Karaitiana Taiuru and can be accessed online or downloaded fromhttp://www.taiuru.maori.nz/indigenous-domains

ENDS

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