For over 20 years up till 2017, Māori fought for the right to be to be fairly represented in the New Zealand Internet Domain Name System and to a lesser extent for recognition within the New Zealand Internet governing body InternetNZ, in an act of Māori Internet activism. A simple right that most people take for granted.

The following article was written in 2016 and due to an oversight, was never fully published. It is timely, as the  history of Māori struggles in .nz and New Zealand Internet developments have largely been lost and forgotten.
It is also good timing now that InternetNZ has admitted to structural racism, meaning much of this which would have once been considered controversial should now be acceptable.

This articles documents the creation of the .maori.nz domain name, the developments of iwi.nz domain name, the creation of the first Māori USENET group and a lot of key research into the usages of Māori domain names in New Zealand and the people who carved a space for Māori to be represented in the Internet.

 

Introduction

For over 20 years up till 2017, Māori fought for the right to be to be fairly represented in the New Zealand Internet Domain Name System and to a lesser extent for recognition within the New Zealand Internet governing body InternetNZ, in an act of Māori Internet activism. A simple right that most people take for granted.

Firstly in 1993 when Iwi wanted to be fairly represented on the Internet and had criteria imposed upon them by self-appointed middle class male geeks, through to then threatening Iwi via the Minister of Māori Affairs Tau Henare to have iwi.nz put on hold.

In 1997 Kohanga Reo could not use and were denied multiple domain name suffixes such as .ac.nz or .org.nz as they did not fit in the self-appointed body of the New Zealand’s Internet pre-determined suffixes. Kohanga requested a specific Māori domain name and were again denied by another subgroup of the self-appointed geeks.

Again in 2001 and 2002, several attempts for .maori.nz to be created to represent online Māori was termed racist and separatist and was met with some public outcry by non-Māori. In 2001 and 2002 .iwi.nz was touted to be used instead of .maori.nz, again without consultation.

Up to 2017, seeking the rights for Māori language to be used with macrons and for the Māori Language Act and Treaty to be recognised and for Māori to have a fair disputes process that any other organisation enjoys, were all battles Māori fought for within the New Zealand Domain Name system. Some representation issues are still being ignored today in 2017 such as disputes of Māori tribal names and intellectual property rights and Treaty recognition.

 

Hidden History of achievements

Despite some major achievements on the Internet by Māori that attracted national and international attention and praise, these achievements have been ignored in books and articles documenting the history of the Internet in New Zealand.

Eventually in 2014, Māori were recognised by an international company Dot Kiwi Ltd who assisted Maori for equal representation and rights that any other user has. Again, this is not well documented anywhere except for ad hoc media articles.

These pages discuss Indigenous Domain Names that were lobbied for by Māori and that were created leading to international changes in the New Zealand Internet system. These changes also saw Māori lead the way for other Indigenous Peoples to be fairly represented on the Internet.

These achievements have become a hidden undocumented history of New Zealand Internet. As a key individual with Indigenous Domain Name creation for Māori in New Zealand, I am concerned that information is being withheld, unpublished and alternative facts have been in the media and in Internet governance circles for many years.

It is noted by Muhamad-Brandner, C. (2010). Indigenous Cyberspace: The Maori Renaissance and its Influence on the Web Space of Aotearoa/New Zealand, the obvious lack of information regarding .iwi.nz and .maori.nz (both significant international achievements) on the web: including by New Zealand’s exclusive Internet governing body’s own publication about the history of the Internet in New Zealand “Connecting the Clouds” Newman,K. (2008).

The present author also notes the conspicuous absence of any mention of the significant developments for Māori on the site downtothewire.co.nz “a site dedicated to the story of New Zealand’s Internet and how it changed our Nation. Featuring video interviews with over 50 Internet personalities and players brings alive a journey that has revolutionised our lives and shaped our future” which only mentions macrons in domain names by the Domain Name Commissioner. No other Māori domain name achievements, nor a mention in the major events timeline.

This publication represents the first and comprehensive research anywhere in the world which has been completed into Indigenous domain names, their usage and the community of interest’s perceptions of Indigenous Domains Names, specifically Māori.

Misleading facts

At the launch of .maori.nz in 2002 (which had international attention by technical and Indigenous communities), InternetNZ made comments in the media that were incorrect and have become the new truth over a number of years (even inadvertently with the current author for some years) when among others, Sue Leader (the then Executive Director of InternetNZ) made the following statement “The key one is it’s, as far as we know, it’s the first indigenous people’s space on the global internet“. Aside from the fact that New Zealand already had .iwi.nz domain name that was created and controlled by InternetNZ, the Indigenous Domain Names timeline will show that maori.nz was in fact the third Indigenous domain name in the world, but that it was the first unmoderated Indigenous domain name in the world.

Again in 2008 the prominent and influential international Internet group APNIC published its international newsletter Issue 26 newsletter which states, the Maori were the first indigenous people in the world to have their own second level domain name, that is, .iwi.nz. InternetNZ is now considering a proposal that second-level domain names be available in both Maori and English languages to reflect the country’s bilingual culture. Further, an idea that InternetNZ has put forward to ICANN is the internationalization of domain names, an increasingly urgent issue now that more than half of the Internet’s 1.2 billion users do not speak English as a first language.

A number of factual inconsistencies above include:

1. .iwi.nz was not the first Indigenous domain name. Refer to the Indigenous Domain Names timeline.
2. internationalisation of .nz domain names was proposed by Māori, see timeline.
3. bilingual domain names proposal was made and declined in 2007 by InternetNZ, the previous year before the article being

Links of interest

1. A full list of GeoTLD’s can be viewed
2. at https://icannwiki.com/New_gTLD_Geographic_Applications
3. World Intellectual Organisation: The recognition of rights and the use of names in the Internet Domain
4. System. http://www.wipo.int/amc/en/processes/process2/report/html/report.html #_edn269
5. Uncharted domains and the new land rush: Indigenous Rights to Top Level Report.
6. Trademark, Intellectual Property and Anti-Counterfeiting Interests (Indigenous) Intellectual Property Constituency. Report.

Note: ISOCNZ was renamed InternetNZ in 2001.

 

Indigenous Domain Names

The term Indigenous Domain Name is an unofficial coined term that should not be confused with the official terminology from the Internet Corporation of Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) of Geographic Domain Name – GeoTLD. GeoTLD is described as a Top Level Domain that identifies a: Cultural, linguistic, ethnic, geopolitical group. .scot is one such example.

I believe that the ICANN community need to re classify domain names into a further category as Cultural and Indigenous have two very different meanings and Indigenous is not geographic based to one geographic location.

The ICANN board have since its inception been wanting of Indigenous representation and knowledge, as was seen with the issues relating to Native Sovereign Nations in their struggle to be recognised as an independent nation and the lack of Indigenous considerations with the New GTLD process.

iwi.nz, maori.nz and māori.nz are three of the world’s nine indigenous domain names. Another two are nsn.us and -nsn.gov for Native Sovereign Nations in America (excludes Mexico and Canada). The creation of these 5 domain names is unique as there was no independent process for the Indigenous Peoples to follow. Their creation was dependent on the government and governing body of the Internet in their country.

The other 4 Indigenous domain names are .cat (Catlan Peoples) .eus (Basque Peoples), .gal ( Galician Peoples) and .bzh (Breton Peoples). These names were created using a process from the world’s international and independent internet governing body the Internet Corporation of Assigned Names and Numbers ICANN using a transparent process of the New GTLD program or as a Sponsored Domain. Both processes require paying a large fee to ICANN.

A country and a sovereign nation (not Native Indian sovereign nations) are automatically assigned a name in the Domain Name System. This is what differentiates a country who still has its Indigenous Peoples as the majority and in government such as Samoa, Tonga etc., there is no need for their people to apply or lobby for their right to be represented on the Internet.

 

Timeline of Indigenous Domain Names

A timeline of Indigenous domain name developments that shows factual dates that will clarify some misconceptions of achievements.

1992 – nsn.us created. The world’s first Indigenous Domain Name. 1994 – iwi.nz created

1997 – First .maori.nz submission

2000 – Karaitiana Taiuru appointed .iwi.nz moderator 2000 – iwi.nz moderation policy updated

2001 – Second .maori.nz submission 2002 – nsn-gov created

2002 – Third .maori.nz submission

2002 (December) – nz.soc.maori proposal and creation 2003 – iwi.nz moderation policy updated

2003 – FreeParking made the official Domain Name Registry for .iwi.nz

2005 – Karaitiana Taiuru asks for macrons to be implemented in .nz domain names 2005 – .cat was introduced

2006 – .bzh was introduced

2007 (August 18 ) – .nz bilingual proposal submission and declined. 2008 – .eus for Basque language was introduced

2010 (July 26 ) – macrons in domain names registrations made possible and .māori.nz a default 2011 – iwi.nz moderation policy updated

2013 – GodZone Internet Services was co-appointed Offical Domain Name Registry .iwi.nz as it could register macrons

2013 – .eus was introduced

2013 – .zulu application withdrawn 2014 – .gal was introduced

2014 (March) – .kiwi introduced with protected Māori names reserved

 

Historical Iwi.nz

iwi.nz was the first Indigenous Domain Name in New Zealand Aotearoa and the second in the world. nsn-gov being the world’s first Indigenous Domain Name.

iwi.nz is a moderated domain that presently allows for any traditional Māori tribe, hapu, or Taurahere group to register the domain.

The domain name iwi.nz has a detailed moderation policy that offers Iwi online protection. The domain name is available via two authorised registrars as specified in the .iwi.nz policy.

Over the past 23 years iwi.nz domain has faced the threat of having new registrations being suspended as there was no one available to manage the domain through moderation.

InternetNZ wrote to the then Minister of Māori Affairs Mr. Tau Henare seeking support to find a moderator or that iwi.nz would face being suspended.

Even at one time it was thought by InternetNZ that .iwi.nz would suffice to be used for Māori representation and as a reason to not support .maori.nz. At some stage it was made clear to InternetNZ that iwi and Māori were two different groups, Iwi being a collective of people based on genealogy or whakapapa and Māori for individuals, groups and anyone who wanted to promote or identify as Māori.

 

Historical .iwi.nz criteria

All historical .iwi.nz moderation policies from the original in 1997.

The original moderation policy was casual and was not written or published in in any formal manner until 1997.

1994/1997

 The policy below was the original policy and was not updated until 2000 by the current moderator by consulting The Maori Internet Society.

iwi.nz is a moderated 2nd level domain. Before considering applying for iwi.nz you must meet, in the first instance the following 2 rules:

Rule 1. You must be a traditional Māori tribe Rule 2. You must have a Trust Board.

2000

 Criteria to be considered for the second level domain .iwi.nz

iwi.nz is a moderated 2nd level domain. Before considering applying for iwi.nz you must meet, in the first instance the following 2 rules *:

Rule 1. You must be a traditional Māori tribe Rule 2. You must have a Trust Board.

* These are the two basic requirements that are required by the New Zealand Internet Society

ISOCNZ.

If you meet the criteria of both Rules 1 and 2, please see New Zealand Māori Internet Society’s application of these rules below in sections 1 – 4.

1. Only a traditional Māori tribe (including Chatham’s) of pre-Treaty of Waitangi times will be considered, pursuant to section
2. Only genuine Māori names will be allowed in the domain. For example, if an iwi owned a company called “Kiwi Limited” they will not be allowed to apply for k.iwi.nz as a web address or www.kiwi.iwi.nz.
3. Tribal dialect is permissible in iwi names, for example “Ngāi Tahu” may apply and will be accepted for “KāiTahu.iwi.nz (pursuant to the rules 1 and 2) as the Ng/K is part of their tribal
4. Urban Māori groups may apply for .iwi.nz with the following provisions which are designed to support the mana of the traditional iwi: Firstly, they must have been established for over 12 months. They must have a Trust Board and represent a reasonable proportion of urban Māori. They must also have a database of all their members as do other iwi They must also have a Māori name. Pākehā names will not be considered as it will affect the mana of the word iwi and the mana of the 2nd Level domain .iwi.nz.

Apply for the iwi.nz domain through your Internet Service Provider or agent. Do not send your application directly to us, as we cannot directly process your request.

Māori Individuals

If you do not meet the requirements above and are a Māori individual or group, we invite you to support the New Zealand Māori Internet Society/Te Whānau Ipurangi. Since we will be approaching ISOCNZ in the near future for a new 2nd level maori.nz domain. The purpose of this new domain will be for all Māori who do not qualify for .iwi.nz. Contact the Chairperson.

Māori Hapū

Traditional Māori hāpu cannot obtain an iwi.nz 2nd Level domain. We suggest you speak with your tribal authority about getting a sub domain name. For example, if your iwi is Ngāi Tahu and your hapū is Ngāi Tuahuriri, talk to the iwi authority and see if you can come to an arrangement for <www.tuahuriri.ngaitahu.iwi.nz>.

If no arrangement can be made or there is no iwi authority etc, we would like to hear from you.

Contact the Chairperson Last updated August 1, 2000.

iwi.nz is a moderated 2nd level domain. Before considering applying for iwi.nz you must meet the

following.

Criteria 1. You must be a traditional Maori tribe, Hapu that belongs to a traditional Maori Iwi

or

taura here Iwi group operating with the permission of the main Iwi. Criteria 2. You must be a legal body.

Criteria 3. Only genuine Maori names will be allowed in the domain pursuant to the following:

• If an Iwi is known by an abbreviation, then they shall be accepted with their abbreviation as their iwi name.

• Tribal project names and tribal owned companies will not be accepted in iwi.nz .

Notes:

1. Multiple .iwi.nz names per Iwi are
2. Tribal dialect is permissible in iwi
3. The use of ngai, ngati or another tribal suffix is applicable in the name but is
4. Technology prohibits the use of macrons in domain
5. Urban Maori groups may apply for .iwi.nz if the following is met:

• Must have been established for over 12
• A legal body
• Must represent a reasonable proportion of urban Maori in your
• Poses a database of all
• Criteria 3 is met.

2011

 iwi.nz is a moderated 2nd level domain specific to Iwi Māori. It is moderated to protect Iwi applicants from individuals:

• Using an Iwi name for non-Iwi purposes
• From purchasing an Iwi name in the .iwi.nz area, and offering to sell it back at huge, inflated prices
• Directing an iwi name to distasteful websites, and many other dubious
• To ensure that Iwi can be assured that their Iwi names have a Kaitiaki and will remain in the rightful

NOTE: Macrons are now available to be used in .iwi.nz addresses.

If your Iwi wish to register a .iwi.nz name, you also have the option of registering your

.iwi.nz with and without macrons. It is advisable to register both forms of your .iwi.nz name with the popularity of macron software and knowledge of macrons (with and without macrons). Each variant will require a separate registration and fee.

Criteria

Criterion 1. You must be a traditional Māori tribe, Hapū that belongs to a traditional Māori Iwi or taura here Iwi group operating with the permission of the main Iwi.

Criterion 2. You must be a legal body.

Criterion 3. Only genuine Māori names will be allowed in the domain pursuant to the following:

(a) If an Iwi is known by an abbreviation, then they shall be accepted with their abbreviation as theiriwi na me.

Note: Tribal project names and tribal owned companies will not be accepted in iwi.nz.

Criterion 4. A Mandated Iwi Organisation as described in the Māori Fisheries Act (MIO), pursuant to Criterion 3.

Notes:

1. Multiple .iwi.nz names per Iwi are
2. Tribal dialect is permissible in iwi
3. The use of ngāi, ngāti or another tribal suffix is applicable in the name but is
4. Urban Māori groups may apply for .iwi.nz if the following is met:

• Must have been established for over 12 months.
• A legal body
• Must represent a reasonable proportion of urban Maori in your
• Posses a database of all
• Criteria 3 is

Registrar

The authorised registrar for the .iwi.nz namespace is FreeParking (www.freeparking.co.nz). This means that all .iwi.nz new registrations may only be made through FreeParking, and that domain names may be transferred to other registrars. Any inquiries regarding this policy should be made to the .iwi.nz Moderator

FAQ replies.

If you are registering on behalf of an Iwi, ensure that the Iwi name is in the registrant fields. If your details are there, the application will be declined.

Once your registration has been approved you will receive an email (to the email supplied as the contact person) invoice from FreeParking. Once you have paid the invoice your domain name will be made available.

If your domain name is not approved, you can email the moderator Karaitiana Taiuru to discuss it. If you are not happy with his response, you may email the New Zealand Domain Name Commissioner info@dnc.org.nz . The DNC is the overall manager of .nz addresses.

If you have billing or technical questions please contact FreeParking directly.

For general questions about .iwi.nz please contact the moderator Karaitiana Taiuru

Value of .iwi.nz and protection options

iwi.nz is a moderated 2nd level domain specific to Iwi Māori. It is moderated to protect Iwi applicants from individuals:

Using an Iwi name for non Iwi purposes

 From purchasing an Iwi name in the .iwi.nz area, and offering to sell it back at huge inflated prices

Directing an iwi name to distasteful websites, and many other dubious schemes.

To ensure that Iwi can be assured that their Iwi names have a Kaitiaki, and will remain in the rightful hands.

The same issues corporate entities and businesses face in the online world in regards to branding and identity are also faced by Iwi.

There is no difference between the commercial and Iwi groups and many other Indigenous Peoples of the world. The only exception is that Iwi have an authentic and protected area on the web with .iwi.nz .

.iwi.nz is a specifically Iwi/Hapu/Taurahere Ropu only web address that is moderated by a real human who checks the authenticity of Iwi names and declines names that are not being registered by the Iwi.

Only two companies have the authority to register .iwi.nz names which further offers authenticity and security in .iwi.nz and is a further assurance to web site visitors and whānau that the web site they are visiting is really the genuine Iwi web site.

The importance for Iwi to register only in .iwi.nz is vital to ensure that Iwi protect both their online identity and for the online safety of Iwi members and whānau.

The issues of a non .iwi.nz address for Iwi.

 So often we hear of a web search for a tribe that takes a user to a gambling web site, an imitation site offering fake jewelry and resources or to pornographic content.

In New Zealand the issues Iwi have faced is people who register Iwi names out of the .iwi.nz address and then offer them for sale at sometimes hundreds of dollars the original price to register the name in the first place. Another issue that Iwi face is having their genuine web site duplicated so as it looks the same as the genuine Iwi web site. The scammers then use the fake site to gain personal information, credit card details etc.

Sometimes a site is registered with the Iwi name out side if .iwi.nz and appears first in Google searches. This issue can be combated by asking your web developer or web expert to make your web site rank higher in search engine rankings by using key words etc.

Previous widespread issues.

 When .maori.nz was launched in 2002, a businessman bulk registered the majority of Iwi names and then offered them for sale.

Likewise in 2012 the launch of the new .kiwi.nz domain name saw a handful of individuals register Iwi names. In 2013 The New Zealand Maori Internet Society began its investigation and logged formal complaints about several of the names.

Potential issues on non .iwi.nz

 Imagine someone searching the Internet for an Iwi organisation and finds IWIname.maori.nz and registers their personal details in a manner one would expect to find on an authentic Iwi web site. But unbeknownst to the visitor, the web site is run by criminals who now have a database of contact details of whānau and individuals. It is very simple to do and is often seen with criminals registering names similar to a bank or other business name and creating almost identical web sites. It is called a phishing attack and happens more often than most people think.

Another common trick that online scammers use is ascertaining commonly miss spelt word variants and registering those as genuine web addresses. For Iwi there is the added security concern that macrons can be added into web addresses, hence ngāi or ngāti can be added to a web address. Again this is another reason to use .iwi.nz as it is almost impossible for any fraudulent names to be registered, or at least for very long without the contact details of the person being recorded and the address cancelled.

iwi.nz creation story and history

In 1994 a representative of Ngāi Tahu iwi informally suggested the benefits of iwi.nz to John Foulkner of the Tuia Society: the former self- appointed only group purporting to co- ordinate activities on the NZ Internet at the time. In 1994 it would go on to suggest the creation of the Internet Society of New Zealand (ISOCNZ) 1995, now known as InternetNZ.

John Foulkner then begun the discussion on the Tuia Technical Working Group list and Don Stoke took the lead in creating the domain.

Don Stoke discussed the creation with John Foulkner, and agreed that it had sufficient character to be a separate domain, but they were worried about reactions. Don discussed it with his mother (Professor, later Dame, Evelyn Stokes, who was a member of the Waitangi Tribunal). From this discussion the concern was that there should be some level of representation. In the early stage of .nz domains there were no “open” vs “moderated” dichotomy in domain name registrations. Effectively, all domains were “moderated” (manually), although the level of moderation varied – co.nz was a casual process whereas govt.nz, mil.nz et al received much more scrutiny.

A brief guideline for registrations which stated that to be eligible for a .iwi.nz domain an iwi had to be a legal trust board (this excluded the majority of iwi at the time). The domain was created and sat alongside govt.nz and mil.nz out of Victoria University.

Moderation of iwi.nz (as with govt.nz and mil.nz) was the responsibility of Don Stokes (although Lloyd Parkes did most of the front line DNS work, including first cuts at moderation) until 1997, and it was mainly discussing appropriateness with registrants.

For iwi.nz, moderation was entirely internal. External help was sought if things had got complex. It is reported that only two interesting cases arose, one where someone tried to register “k.iwi.nz” (this occurred as late as 2013), and secondly when Tainui Corporation came to register but were declined as the iwi vs commercial distinction (still an issue in 2017).

.iwi.nz was considered by InternetNZ to be representative of all Māori and that it should decline the proposed maori.nz proposal. It was pointed out that iwi.nz was intended for representative organisations, and as such the proposed maori.nz would have a quite different registrant community, so no, iwi.nz wasn’t “the Māori domain.

On August 1 1999 InternetNZ (ISOCNZ) wrote a letter to the then Minister of Maori Affairs Mr Tau Henare stating that if a moderator for .iwi.nz could not be found the domain would be closed 15 September 1999 until a moderator can be located. At some stage soon after this, Aroha Mead, formerly of Te Puni Kōkiri was appointed the moderator as an interim while someone else was found. In 2001 Karaitiana Taiuru was appointed the moderator of iwi.nz by Frank March and Sue Leader after a meeting in Wellington with the two and with Aroha Mead. At the date of writing Karaitiana Taiuru is still the moderator (2017).

Karaitiana Taiuru was then the Chair of The New Zealand Māori Internet Society and used the large membership of the society to consult and support changes to ensure that iwi.nz could be more inclusive of all stakeholder Iwi including Moriori which at the time were excluded from being recognised as Iwi.

When the Domain Name Commissioner was established, formalised agreements between domain name moderators (.govt.nz, .mil.nz, .cri.nz and .iwi.nz) and the Commission were signed making the process more formal than in previous years. While in the most part this was beneficial to all moderated domain name holders and the .nz community, it was detrimental for the ability to consult with Iwi in a cultural manner that created communications.

For consultation, the Domain Name Commission introduced a formal letter which was to be sent to each Iwi organisation (the person whose name appeared in the public record of the domain name – whois) from the DNC, and required a formal response to support any changes to the moderation policy in a short time frame. This formality up to the time of writing in 2017 has stalled .iwi.nz growth and seen the domain policy become out of date with Iwi who are increasingly growing commercial entities, social and various other entities as a result of treaty settlements and investments and as a result to better represent their tribal members.

It is typical that a iwi.nz domain or any other domain for any organisation has a contact person for someone in the IT department for technical contact and someone in the accounts department for billing. It would be highly unusual for the CEO or directors to be contact people for their domain name. Likewise for Iwi, tribal leaders will not have their name associated with the iwi.nz registration.

Much of the early information above was provided by Done Stoke. The information from 2000 was based on my own recollections and e-mails.

iwi.nz directory of iwi and domains (current of December 2016

A directory of all .iwi.nz domains that are current. The list is built from public information and moderation emails, so there may be slight variances if a domain name is not renewed.

To see who is the registered owner of a domain or if you have a dispute you will need to visit http://www.dnc.org.nz

 

Registered Iwi	.iwi.nz Domain
Hauraki	hauraki.iwi.nz
He Kainga Tuwharetoa	1.  tuwharetoa.iwi.nz 2.  tuwharetoa-matauranga.iwi.nz
He Toa Takitini	hetoatakitini.iwi.nz
Heretaunga Tamatea Settlement Trust	heretaungatamatea.iwi.nz
Horowhenua Lake Trust	horowhenualaketrust.iwi.nz
Iwi Moderator	register.iwi.nz
Kahungunu ki Wairarapa	1.  kahungunuwairarapa.iwi.nz 2.  kkw.iwi.nz
Mandated iwi authority of Ngati Rangitane	rangitaane.iwi.nz
Maniapoto Tribal Trust Board	maniapoto.iwi.nz
Maupoko Tribal Authority	muaupoko.iwi.nz
Nga Hapu o Ngaruahine Iwi	ngaruahine.iwi.nz
Nga Punawai o Te Tokotoru	tapuika.iwi.nz
Nga Rauru Iwi Authority Society Inc	ngarauru.iwi.nz
Nga Taonga O Ngaitakoto Trust	ngaitakoto.iwi.nz
Ngai Tuhoe	tuhoe.iwi.nz
Ngai Tuhoe	twa.iwi.nz
Ngaati Whanaunga Incorporated Society	ngaatiwhanaunga.iwi.nz
Ngai Tai Iwi Authority	ngaitai.iwi.nz
Ngai Tāmanuhiri	tamanuhiri.iwi.nz
Ngai te Rangi Settlement Trust	ngaiterangi.iwi.nz
Ngai Te Rangihouhiri	terangihouhiri.iwi.nz
Ngai Tuhoe	ngaituhoe.iwi.nz
Ngai Tuteauru Trust	ngaituteauru.iwi.nz
Ngati Apa ki te Ra To	ngatiapakitearto.iwi.nz
Ngati Hako	hako.iwi.nz
Ngati Haua Trust	ngatihaua.iwi.nz
Ngati Hauiti	ngatihauiti.iwi.nz
Ngati Hei	ngatihei.iwi.nz
Ngāti Hikairo ki Kawhia	ngatihikairo.iwi.nz
Ngati Hine	ngatihine.iwi.nz
Ngati Hinewaka me ona Karangaranga Claim Committee	hinewaka.iwi.nz
Ngati Koata Trust Board	koata.iwi.nz
Ngati Kuia	ngatikuia.iwi.nz
Ngati Kuri Iwi Trust Baord	ngatikuri.iwi.nz
Ngati Manuhiri	ngatimanuhiri.iwi.nz

Ngati Maru	ngatimaru.iwi.nz
Ngati Mutunga	ngatimutunga.iwi.nz
Ngati Paoa Iwi Trust Board	ngatipaoa.iwi.nz
Ngati Rangi Development Society	1.     ngatirangingapuhi.iwi.nz 2.     ngatirangitaiamai.iwi.nz
Ngati Rangi Trust	1.     kahuimaunga.iwi.nz 2.     paerangi.iwi.nz
Ngati Rangi	ngatirangi.iwi.nz
Ngati Ranginui Society	1.  ngatiranginui.iwi.nz 2.  ranginui.iwi.nz
Ngāti Rangitihi Trust	rangitihi.iwi.nz
Ngati Rehia	ngatirehia.iwi.nz
Ngati Tama Manawhenua ki te tau ihu Trust	ngati-tama.iwi.nz
Ngāti Tamaterā Treaty Settlement Trust	tamatera.iwi.nz
Ngati Tara Tokanui Trust	ngatitaratokanui.iwi.nz
Ngati Te Ata Claims Whanau	ngatiteata.iwi.nz
Ngati Toa	ngatitoa.iwi.nz
Ngati Uenuku Claims Committee	1.  ngatiuenuku.iwi.nz 2.  uenuku.iwi.nz 3.  uta.iwi.nz
Ngati Wai Trust Baord	ngatiwai.iwi.nz
Ngati Whakaue	ngatiwhakaue.iwi.nz
Ngati Whatua o Kaipara	ngatiwhatuakaipara.iwi.nz
Ngatikahu ki Whangaroa Trust Board	ngatikahukiwhangaroa.iwi.nz
Rangitāne o Wairarapa	rangitane.iwi.nz
Rongomaiwahine Iwi Trust	rongomaiwahine.iwi.nz
Rongowhakaata	rongowhakaata.iwi.nz
Tatau Tatau o Te Wairoa Tribal Authority	ttotw.iwi.nz
Ruatoko Tribal Authority	tehuiahureiatuhoe.iwi.nz
Taranaki Iwi Trust	1. tkot.iwi.nz 2.taranaki.iwi.nz
Tauwhenua O Heretaunga Trust	ttoh.iwi.nz
Te Aitanga-a-Hauiti Iwi Incorporated	te-aitanga-a-hauiti.iwi.nz
Te Atiawa	teatiawa.iwi.nz
Te Aupouri	teaupouri.iwi.nz
Ngā Puhi	tehauoraongapuhi.iwi.nz
Te Hika o Papauma Mandated Iwi Authority	1.  papauma.iwi.nz 2.  tehikaopapauma.iwi.nz
Te Kaahui O Rauru	rauru.iwi.nz
Te Iwi o Ngati Tukorehe	tukorehe.iwi.nz
Te Kawerau a Maki	tekawerau.iwi.nz
Te Korowai o Ngāruahine Trust	1.  ngaaruahine.iwi.nz 2.  ngāruahine.iwi.nz 3.  ngatirangitihi.iwi.nz
Te Maru O Ruahine Trust	1.  ngatihauiti.iwi.nz 2.  ngati-hauiti.iwi.nz

Te Papatipu o Uepohatu Charitable Trust	uepohatu.iwi.nz
Te patukirikiri iwi inc	patukirikiri.iwi.nz
Te Roroa	teroroa.iwi.nz
Te Runanga A Iwi O Ngapuhi	ngapuhi.iwi.nz
Te Runanga o Ngai Tahu	1.  kaitahu.iwi.nz 2.  tewaka.iwi.nz 3.  kāitahu.iwi.nz 4.  ngaitahu.iwi.nz 5.  ngāitahu.iwi.nz
Te Runanga o Ngaiti Kahungunu	kahungunu.iwi.nz
Te Runanga o Ngati Apa	ngatiapa.iwi.nz
Te Runanga o Ngati Awa	ngatiawa.iwi.nz
Te Runanga o Ngati Porou	ngatiporou.iwi.nz
Te Runanga o Ngati Tahu Ngati Whaoa	tahu-whaoa.iwi.nz
Te Runanga o Ngati Whare	ngatiwhare.iwi.nz
Te Runanga o Ngati Whatua	ngatiwhatua.iwi.nz
Te Runanga o Onuku	onuku.iwi.nz
Te Runanga O Raukawa	1.     raukawa.iwi.nz 2.     rwo.iwi.nz
Te Runanga o Te Rarawa	1.  tehiku.iwi.nz 2.  terarawa.iwi.nz
Te Runanga o Tuahuriri	tuahiwimarae.iwi.nz
Te Runanga o Turanganui a Kiwa	trotak.iwi.nz
Te Runanga o Whingaroa	whaingaroa.iwi.nz
Te Rūnanga-a-Iwi o Ngāti Kahu	ngatikahu.iwi.nz
Te Taumutu Rūnanga	tetaumuturunanga.iwi.nz
Te Tawharau o Ngati Pukenga	ngatipukenga.iwi.nz
Te Tira Kokiri O Te Wairoa	tetirawhakaemi.iwi.nz
Te Uru Taumatua	teurewera.iwi.nz
The Proprietors of Ngati Whakaue Tribal Lands	whakaue.iwi.nz
Tuhoe Tribal Authority	waikaremoanatribal.iwi.nz
Waitaha	waitaha.iwi.nz

iwi.nz Growth 1994-2016

Iwi.nz domain name growth from 1994 to December 2016 is receded below in the graph and the table. It shows the iwi.nz domain name grew when the policies became more representative of the Iwi.

 

1994	0
1995	1
1996	2
1997	3
1998	8
1999	11
2000	18
2001	24
2002	34
2003	45
2004	54
2005	54
2006	56
2007	59
2008	64
2009	70
2010	78
2011	77
2012	77
2013	85
2014	84
2015	92
2016	103

maori.nz

The world’s first unmoderated Indigenous domain name that took Māori three attempts and five years for the Internet governing body InternetNZ to recognise the needs of Māori and to approve the implementation of .maori.nz by InternetNZ council on 07 June 2002. Implementation date was 04 September 2002.

Introduction

.maori.nz was significant for a number of reasons including:

• The first addition to the .nz name space in 6 years
• The world’s first Indigenous un-moderated domain name
• The first application to use the policy for a new 2nd Level Domain Name in .nz
• The first domain in .nz that was by and for Māori
• The majority of votes for creation (ten times more than the InternetNZ membership)
• The largest community participation with the .nz straw poll in .nz

Despite the significant national and international achievements above of .maori.nz, the achievements were mentioned in only one sentence in the book Connecting the clouds commissioned by InternetNZ . Connecting the clouds is a history of the people, activities and events that contributed to the creation, then growth, of the Internet in New Zealand. There is also little recognition of the Indigenous achievements on the .nz Wikipedia page.

The genuine history of .maori.nz is already being re-written by academics in their research which is based solely on media articles and the limited amount of data left publicly available on the web. I am conscious of the deliberate act of deleting information by some gate keepers who would prefer some of this information is gone and forgotten.

Many people think that the government, InternetNZ or some other organization created .maori.nz . The truth is that a small core group persevered for five years and fought politics and racism for a number of years to have .maori.nz introduced so that all Māori on the web could have a unique identity.

The policy of applying for the creation of a new 2nd Level Domain name in .nz was retired on September 30 2014 when the .nz structure was opened up to allow name registrations directly at the .nz without the need to use a pre-selected suffix of: co.nz, net.nz, org.nz, geek.nz, maori.nz/māori.nz, gen.nz, health.nz, govt.nz, ,mil.nz, parliament.nz.

Background

The man who originally thought of .maori.nz is Ross Himona. The other person who introduced me to the .maori.nz debate and fully supported the process in the following years to see .maori.nz created is Te Rangikaiwhiria Kemara.

As Māori we would probably be looking at a new GTLD at the costing millions of dollars, or perhaps still arguing and seeking a fair representation online if we didn’t have .maori.nz . Perhaps Māori would have taken a case to the Waitangi Tribunal seeking a change of the way the .nz is managed in New Zealand and for recognition of Treaty partnerships. Or dot Kiwi would be the preferred option.

Attempt one- 1997

In 1997 Ross Himona was working for Te Kōhanga Reo National Trust in Wellington. The trust is a national early childhood educational facility. The trust wanted to make an Internet presence and use the domain kohanga.ac.nz . At that time the .ac.nz domain was moderated only available for tertiary level institutions.

Upon the Kōhanga Reo National Trust applying for kohanga.ac.nz they were informed by the

.ac.nz moderator that the Kōhanga was not an academic institute therefore unable to use

.ac.nz. They were also not eligible to use .school.nz which at that time was also moderated. But as they were a trust which administers the movement of 750 plus kōhanga reo and a registered charitable trust, therefore should apply for .org.nz.

In that same year a public submission was made available by InternetNZ (previously known as ISOCNZ) for any interested parties to submit feedback about new Second Level Domains. This was an opportunity for Kōhanaga to be represented fairly on the web and to apply for

.maori.nz to be created. A number of submissions were sent to InternetNZ in support of a new Māori domain “.maori.nz” with no success.

Disillusioned by these circumstances and the avalanche of “Anti Māori” emails from the public (still a common occurrence in 2017 but with social media as well) and members of InternetNZ, the high rate of cyber-squatting Māori names (still an on-going issue), Ross Himona established a Māori organisation to support Māori on the Internet which was to become The New Zealand Māori Internet Society. “The New Zealand Māori Internet Society NZMIS” begun its humble beginnings with a handful of members in a Yahoo Group, no web site and only one goal “to have .maori.nz created”.

Detailed account of the history of The New Zealand Māori Internet Society.

 Ross Himona was the founder of NZMIS and appointed Kaumatua of the Society and an honorary lifetime member in 2000.

Below is an essay written by Ross Himona.

In 1995 I first ventured into Cyberspace. That’s not long ago, but in Internet time it was quite early in the development of public access Internet in Aotearoa New Zealand. It was for instance well before the advent of Xtra and Clear and Ihug. At the time there were no New Zealand based Internet Service Providers with nationwide coverage, and I joined the US service, Compuserve, to be able to connect from the main centers in this country. The first thing I did was look for Māori on the Net, and for Māori content on the World Wide Web.

There were very few Māori, and there were virtually no authentic Māori websites. What I did find in online forums, in newsgroups, and in websites, was that Pākehā were presuming to present a Māori perspective to the world on our behalf.

Quite perturbed, I decided to build my first website, which is still there, called “From Hawaiki to Hawaiki”. In this website I set out to present clearly and unmistakably a Māori view of Māori, and to seize the initiative back from those who were presuming to tell our stories. I also became quite aggressively involved in various online forums and newsgroups in order to make a point about Māori ownership of matters Māori.

Not long after, Kamera Raharaha (Te Aupouri) from Auckland also published her first website called Māori Organisations of New Zealand. We sought each other out and worked together to develop what we saw as an authentic Māori presence on the Internet. These two websites became the pioneer Māori sites on the Web and became models for many Māori who have since ventured into cyberspace as e-publishers.

We soon became aware that the Internet in Aotearoa New Zealand was controlled by a small group of Pākehā, mostly linked to the universities, Waikato and Victoria in particular. It was the universities that had brought the Internet to the country. We thought that Māori ought to stake a claim to the Internet in Aotearoa.

We realised also the enormous potential of the medium for Māori to present our stories and our perspective to the world. From the moment we published our websites we were both inundated with visitors from all over the globe, wanting to know more about Māori and Māori culture. The medium is available to all, affordable, and is a global medium.

In 1997 the Internet Society of New Zealand (ISOCNZ) asked for submissions on second-level domain names. The names available were <co.nz>, <org.nz>, <gen.nz>, <net.nz>, <ac.nz>,

<school.nz>, <cri.nz>, <govt.nz>, <mil.nz>, and <iwi.nz>.

The <iwi.nz> domain name was only available to a very limited number of organisations, and only on application to a moderator. I thought at the time that Māori needed a generic domain name, and one that makes a bold statement about the place of the tangata whenua in the affairs of Aotearoa New Zealand. From our experience on the Web, Kamera and I knew that there was enormous interest in Māori, and in fact the Māori websites were the ones that made Aotearoa New Zealand unique in the world.

Kamera and I were also acutely aware that Pākehā had pounced on some of our Māori domain names. <maori.co.nz> had been registered by a Pākehā in Southland before we could do it ourselves. Kamera managed to get <maori.org.nz>, and I registered <maori.net.nz> and <maori.gen.nz>.

The USA domain names <maori.com> and <maori.net> had also been taken by non-Māori. They were registering them for commercial purposes without a thought for the rights of the tangata whenua to their own names.

I was doing a technology contract at Te Kōhanga Reo National Trust at the time (in 1997) and applied to ISOCNZ for a new second-level domain <maori.nz>. The application was quite well supported given that it was submitted at very short notice. However, as this was a public process, I then received what was my first avalanche of anti-Māori email. There were many more to come over the following years, for a variety of different online campaigns. I also received some very disparaging comments from a couple of members of ISOCNZ.

In the event ISOCNZ decided against allowing any more second-level domain names.

Kamera Raharaha and I then decided to form the Māori Internet Society with the long-term aim of wresting control of part of the Internet for Māori – Māori control of things Māori. We solicited membership and gained about ten members. However, as we were both heavily involved in developing our own online presence on the Net, we did not actively promote society at that time, but agreed that we would wait until more Māori became involved on the Internet.

The Society needs active involvement by a core group of people who are prepared to become involved in the administration and the politics of Internet management in Aotearoa New Zealand. It also needs active support from a broad base of Māori internet users.

I maintained a Māori Internet Society page on my website, and from time to time received a few requests for information.

Early in 2000, after the interest seemed to increase somewhat, I decided to re-launch it via an egroups.com email list. There was immediate interest from a small group of Internet activists who thought that the Society should be incorporated, and who indicated that they were willing to play an active role. As Founder, I then appointed an interim executive to incorporate the Society and hold elections. The Chairman of that interim executive, Karaitiana Taiuru, has done an excellent job, and with his committee, is well on the way to converting our informal society into a vibrant and effective representative group for Māori on the Internet.

Key People

 Adrianne Paranihi

• Andrea Malcolm
• Bernadette Murray
• Colin Heke
• Erana Wineti
• Godfrey Pohatu
• Hauiti Hakopa
• Hone Phillips
• Ivor Jones
• Kamera Rahara
• Karaitiana Taiuru
• Kupe Waa
• Leon Symes
• Leona Karauria
• Michael Ross
• Paula Collins
• Pikiora Wylie
• Richard Orzecki
• Riki Robinson
• Ross Himona
• Tame Iti
• Te Rangikaiwhiria Kemara
• Teanau Tuiono
• Tiopira Hape
• Tony Murray
• Tumohe Clarke
• Vance Walker

maori.nz Submission and feedback – 1997

 .maori.nz original public submissions and application to consider .maori.nz by InternetNZ formerly known as ISOCNZ. The original site can be accessed

from http://web.archive.org/web/20040820223324/http://www.internetnz.net.nz/dns/2nd

-level-domains/maorinz-submissions/index.html

Kōhanga Reo Submission Father Serafim

Mark Cubey , John Waldon Philip Tremewan

Brenda Tahi Hinemoana Baker. John Waldon.

Ron Woodrow of ISPANZ Hera White

INZ of TUANZ

Wiremu Kaa

Web Designers of New Zealand InforMate Technologies Limited

Köhanga Reo Submission

Dear John,

I realise this submission is way beyond closing date but I have only just become aware of the need to make it.

To date not many Maori people outside universities, polytechs and govt depts have joined the Net. However they are now starting to join. Over the next year or so my project team plans to join up to 750 kohanga reo.

I am the director of Project Amiorangi which is building a nationwide telecommunications system for Te Kohanga Reo National Trust, to link together all our Kohanga Reo, and later to link in all Maori educational institutions up to and including tertiary. A virtual wananga.

I have recently tried to register a domain name for our Te Kohange Reo movement to be told today by Patrick O’Brien that as we are not a tertiary level institution we may not use

<ac> and should use <org> because the trust which administers the movement of 750-odd kohange reo is a registered charitable trust.

On the basis that most NZ universities and polytechs have purloined the title of <Wananga> from Maori, and have wrongly applied it to the tertiary institution only, I believe I should be able to use <ac> for our movement. For the Wananga in Maori society was and is a whole- of-life institution.

His advice that if people look for us on the Net they will most likely look for us under <org> is absolute codswallop. They would most likely look under <maori> if it existed.

The domain <iwi> does not adequately describe our movement either, but I am trying for that in the meantime.

There are only ten second level domains at the moment, only one of which <iwi> is specifically Maori. Those Maori organisations for which that name is not appropriate are then forced to use a non-Maori domain. I believe the current system is inappropriate for this country which is bi-cultural, and the system certainly does not cater for the tangata whenua.

However, I realise that changes may take considerable time to bring about, so I have an immediate request. Can the second level domain <maori> be registered ASAP. It is would be a suitable generic domain name until we can together devise a more bicultural system.

Ross Himona Director

Project Amiorangi

Te Kohanga Reo National Trust

Father Serafim Submission

I would like to appeal against the use of iwi.nz as a domain name instead of maori.nz. I do not believe we have a right to define a domain name that is not representative of Maori. It may have been suggested by a Maori, but we should seek a collective opinion, not that of an individual or non-representative group.

Thank you for your attention Father Serafim

A Concerned New Zealand Citizen and Author of 101 Active X Controls, IDG – to be published 1997

 

Mark Cubey , John Waldon

Tena koutou katoa

I wish to support the call for the immediate registration of the .maori.nz second level domain name, and for a review of all .nz domain names to ensure that the right of tangata whenua to define themselves in their own cultural framework is protected by the Internet Society of New Zealand.

Yours sincerely Mark Cubey John Waldon

Philip Tremewan

I support the immediate registration of the .maori.nz second level domain name, and a review of all .nz domain names to ensure that the right of tangata whenua to define themselves in their own cultural framework is protected by the Internet Society of New Zealand.

Philip Tremewan

Brenda Tahi

Kia ora John

I hereby submit the following in plea to the Internet society: the immediate registration of the .maori.nz second level domain name, and for a review of all .nz domain names to ensure that the right of tangata whenua to define themselves in their own cultural framework is protected by the Internet Society of New Zealand.

Kia ora ano, naku noa, na Brenda Tahi

Hinemoana Baker

Kia ora John

I write in support of the call for a second level domain name with the title ‘maori.nz’ – since speaking for myself, as a Maaori writer who lives away from her rohe and who possesses an essentially urban outlook, I don’t consider myself contained in the concept of ‘iwi.nz’. I also believe it to be very important for us as Maaori to define how we are described WHENEVER we are described, especially when such description involves access to something as globally significant as the Internet. I therefore support a review of all .nz domain names, with this in mind.

Ngaa mihi ki a koe. Hinemoana Baker.

John Waldon

Kia ora John,

It was a complete surprise to me that Maori should have to make a case for the establishment of an internet domain name in New Zealand.

I was in Italy and Britan last year recommending to fellow epidemiologists and public health specialists that they search NZ of Maori health issues assuming there was a Maori domain name established. Health issues of indigenous peoples has become an important topic for world wide debate and scholarship, therefore easy access to Maori literature and data will be important and contribute to the leadership role New Zealand has established.

As a Health Research Council sponsored Health Research Unit we use the internet to disemminate and collect health information. The organisation of this information on the internet is q critical factor in the suces we have in using this valued research tool.

The Internet is changing the preception many people have of the world, and the role the NZ Internet Society will play in the profile NZ has with the rest of the world will be pivotal.

The relationship between Maori and the rest of New Zealand was defined by the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840 when the rest of New Zealand (non-Maori numbered perhaps 2,000,) was a very small minority. The apparent reemergence of the Treaty of Waitangi into the conscience of New Zealand has engaged much debate and surprise (from many,) about the conytemporary relevance of the Treaty. The most authoritative interpretation came from the Royal Commission on Social Policy in 1988, were the Commission stated the Treaty was as relevant today as it was when signed, and should be included in future social policy.

You may ask what relevance this has to the NZ Internet Society, and I would suggest that the three principals of the Treaty identified by the Commission be recognised by The NZ Internet Society. The three principals are partnership, participation and protection.

I do not think you need my interpretation of how the NZ Internet Society may incorporate these principals, but the establishment of a domain name for internet groups who identify as Maori would be helpfull. Encouraging the active participation of Maori in the business of the NZ Internet Society would in many ways enrich the society.

I hope the NZ Internet Society sees the development of Maori Internet groups as a positive objectives in the development of New Zealand as a leader in world of the Internet.

I look forward to your response. Yours faithfully,

John Waldon. Research Officer.

Te Pumanawa Hauora Department of Maori Studies Massey University

P O Box 11222

Palmerston North NEW ZEALAND

 

ISPANZ

Submission to ISOCNZ from ISPANZ regarding new 2nd level Domains for New Zealand.

ISPANZ endorses the comments made by the WDNZ ( http://www.wdnz.org.nz/isocnz.html) and adds the following points:

Changing the existing system will make ISP’s jobs more difficult trying to explain and manage our customers’ domain names, and be more expensive for everyone to administer. Second level names should be kept to an absolute minimum.

It will result in major problems and expense for all domain name holders trying to protect all possible names.

One of the main reasons the change was proposed originally was to dilute the intrinsic value of existing names. This is a poor reason for change. Reality is that almost everything in society has a value.

ISPANZ members believe there was no problem with the existing policies, and objects to everyone having to waste time over what are unnecessary and academic discussions and submissions. No ISPANZ member to our recollection has reported problems with nor suggested changes to the existing policies.

The KISS principle works well here.

ISPANZ supports the status quo

Ron Woodrow Spokesman ISPANZ

 

Hera White

Kia ora John

I support the registration of the .maori.nz second level domain name as a generic term rather than the specific iwi.nz. I also support wholeheartedly that Maori as tangata whenua should have the right to define for ourselves the naming and defining of our own cultural frameworks to ensure protection within the Internet Society of New Zealand.

Hera White

Head of Maori Studies

INZ of TUANZ’

INZ is TUANZ’ special interest group for the Interactive Multimedia industry.

The Hub of INZ has requested me to make the following public submission to ISOCNZ:

Public Submission to ISOCNZ

INZ is aware of a concern amongst its members about decision making regarding the .nz space that may affect their functioning in this space.

INZ has been launched with a mission statement that promises to see to empowerment of all participants in the interactive process.

With the current debate on second level domain names comes an opportunity to democratize the decision making process in the New Zealand .nz domain of the Net.

INZ would like to see structures put in place, that guarantee the rights of all participants in the second level domains of the .nz space to have a vote on policymaking regarding their domains. INZ would strongly favour the full use of the tools of the Internet itself to achieve open , democratic debate, the formulation of questions for referenda and decision making by on-line ballot.

More specifically, INZ would endorse a structure whereby all third level domain name owners would have a right to vote on all issues affecting their second level and on all policymaking regarding their own domains in the widest sense.

INZ would like to see debate starting on the formulation of a Cyber “Bill of Rights”, which would begin with guaranteeing the recognition of legal Title of Ownership to a Third level domain name and a corresponding protection of the investment made in building up the Domain and promoting it on the Net.

INZ sees the coming of Net Usage Regulation as unavoidable, but it sees the opportunity for a small democratic country to trailblaze a truly democratic structure of decision making by the net community itself, that can be an example to other jurisdictions.

 

Wiremu Kaa

Dear John Hine,

This is to advise you that I support the proposal to allocate a second level domain name that is being currently discussed by many Maori persons to cater for those Maori who are located in urban situations throughout the world and who are uncertain and wary about iwi affiliations. This request is requested on the basis of the need for a globally recogniseable domain that is dedicated and specific to Maori and their ethnicity, and the need to locate and identify Maori in an appropriate cultural framework that is distinctly unique in a Global context.

I would urge that serious consideration to this request which was initiated by Ross Himona. Wiremu Kaa

 

Web Designers of New Zealand

Submission to ISOCNZ regarding new 2nd level Domains for New Zealand

From WDNZ Web Designers of New Zealand

1/ We see no valid reasons for any new 2nd level names. If there comes a time they are needed the market should determine what they are.

2/ We feel any more 2nd level domains will devalue and dilute the importance of existing .co.nz and .net.nz names which will make using the internet in New Zealand more complicated. Especially if we had both .co. and .com

3/ If there are now many hundreds of thousand .com names we see no validation in any excuse of “not enough space in the .co.nz domain space”.

4/ We do not see the “clashing of names” as a valid excuse for new 2nd level names. If a company called smith missed out on the 3rd level name of smith.co.nz we see it as a much better solution to be more specific or creative at the 3rd level eg smithshoes.co.nz rather than confusing the internet public with more 2nd level names

5/ Decisions such as this which could directly affect the future and livelihood of all WDNZ members both now and in the future should be made with adequate consultation and OPEN meetings between related parties especially web designers , content developers and ISPs.

We feel that merely asking us for a submission does not go far enough to involving the internet community and would like to see more open discussion on this and many other related issues in the near future.

WDNZ members including web designers from:

Aardvark

Akiko

Press Online CWA

Cybergrove NewMedia Cyberlink

Dezignet E Central Expo

Imachination Goldfish Design Melco Netguide Pearson Davis Promethean Stimulus

Strategic Information Service Ltd @url

Vidmark Productions WebFoot Publications Webdesign

Web Workshop X64

Xtra

 

InforMate Technologies Limited

John,

We would like to add our support to WDNZ’s submission on Level 2 domain names. Although we are not a member of WDNZ we agree with their arguments in their submission.

We do not believe expansion will provide significant benefits rather (among other things) it will create confusion for web users now used to the existing level 2 structure.

My 2c worth anyway before the close off!!! Regards

Brian Andrews

InforMate Technologies Limited

 

 

maori.nz application 2 – 2001

The second and unsuccessful application to create .maori.nz . A joint application by ISOC Aotearoa steering committee and The New Zealand Māori Internet Society.

 

Submitted by the Maori Internet Society and ISOC Aotearoa Chapter in Formation Steering

Committee.

The following application for the .nz Second Level Domain .maori meets all criteria as laid down by ISOCNZ policy. A strong and growing community of interest exists; an existing responsible organisation, the Maori Internet Society, undertakes to carry out moderation of the Domain; and it will be to the benefit of society generally in New Zealand that such a domain exists.

1  Community of Interest

Maori in New Zealand have established a strong presence on the Internet, using a diverse range of addresses including maori.com,.iwi.nz, and addresses such as www.creativenz.govt.nz/arts/maori.html.

The existing second level moderated domain name .iwi.nz has a limited frame of reference in that it refers to a tribal structure, rather than the Maori community with its full range of cultural, artistic, linguistic and social functions.

Internet columnist Peter Sinclair has observed in an article entitled “Cyber-iwi Are Putting Their Culture Online” (NZ Herald, October 17, 2000) that during research he was “struck by the extraordinary richness of the Maori contribution to the Web, and fascinated by the impact of a global medium on a tribal culture.”

The developing community of New Zealand Maori, which takes in urban Maori, and includes people with a sense of identification with their Maori ethnicity but a lack of traditional ties, is currently being misrepresented as a tribal culture by the exclusivity of .iwi as the “Maori” second level domain name. Indeed, though Sinclair has reported in depth the contribution of the Maori community to the Web and commented on the cultural importance of it, he has had to conduct a search to find the community of interest that he demonstrates does exist, because it is represented in a fragmented way. We submit that creation of the.maori second level domain will be used by Maori in many fields of endeavour.

The creation of the second level domain name .maori.nz will also give overdue recognition to Maori using the Internet as an important and distinct community of interest. It will facilitate the exploration of the full range of interests of this community, as represented above, to be presented in an appropriate structure, that of .maori.nz. The application is presented by the Maori Internet Society, a group that is not tribal, but aims to represent the Maori Internet community. The aim is to look towards the future of Maori working as a community within New Zealand, rather than back towards a tribal structure that, though it retains its importance, represents one facet of the community activities.

2  General Principles

Equality is a strongly held principle of our New Zealand democracy, and a strongly held principle of the global Internet community to which this application refers. The application seeks to have recognition of the rights to full independent recognition in the Internet environment, not only of the Maori community, but of ethnic groups generally within our country. The.maori application refers to a specific community of interest, that of the Maori people seeking to participate as a group in the opportunities of the knowledge economy and cultural development offered by the Internet.

The rights of Maori to full participation in our New Zealand society are recognised in law and through the developing social understanding of the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi and the social contract pertaining to areas of national life that it represents.

However this application seeks to invoke the rights of all cultural groups in New Zealand to have an Internet “home” and a defined space where their voices can be heard as part of their community. The application recognises that the domain name space does not seek to be a directory, and building a directory of Maori commercial interests, for example, is not the core intention of this application. Rather, the intention is to establish, through the .maori second level domain, that the multicultural society of New Zealand is represented in a fair and equal way to New Zealanders and the global Internet community.

The Maori Internet Society and the ISOC Aotearoa Chapter in Formation Steering Committee hope that .maori should be the lead application for other cultural and ethnic groups of New Zealand, in seeking second level domains. These may well be presented in the multiple languages of “New New Zealanders”. As an example, the Chinese community may be a primary example of an ethnic group that has high uptake of the Internet and expertise in its technology. The Chinese community may at some point wish to express its sense of community, develop e-commerce in its first language (Chinese), but also wish to present itself as “of New Zealand”, that is, as part of the .nz domain name space.

3  Meeting The Changing Needs of NZ Society

The.maori application therefore, seeks not to present the application as a special case, (though it has special features) but to affirm the voices of the many cultures of New Zealand society on line. ISOCNZ policy on second level domains states:

It will be necessary over time for the second level domain name space to evolve over time to reflect the changing needs of society.

The .maori domain name proposal, we submit, fulfils the intent of this provision. The name

.maori is a reference that every New Zealander will immediately understand as referring to the community of New Zealand Maori, and no other term would carry this societal weight of understanding. Thus, we submit that the name .maori should be accepted as a natural progression in the development of the New Zealand Internet.

Tono Māori mō ngā ingoa tōmeina taumata tuarua ki te ISOCNZ

Tonoa e: “Te Whānau Ipurangi o Aotearoa”. www.nzmis.org.nz – ī-mēra heamana@nzmis.org.nz .

Whakamārama:

He rōpū tupu tonu Te Whānau Ipurangi o Aotearoa, he rōpū hoki e tūwhera ana ki te katoa, ā, hei waha kōrero anō hoki tēnei rōpū mō ngā āhuatanga Māori katoa e pā ana ki te Ipurangi. He whānui kē hoki ngā mātauranga i waenga i ngā mema 250 (neke atu) o tēnei rōpū, arā, ko ētehi he iwi tonu, he hapū, he marae, he kamupene, he rōpū mahi kore utu, he kaimahi tari kāwanatanga, he tāngata nō Aotearoa, he tāngata hoki nō tāwāhi, tae mai ki ngā Māori kei tāwāhi kē e noho ana, ā, ki ētehi atu anō tāngata ehara kē i te Māori.

He rōpū tēnei kāore kē mō te whai moni, nā te aroha noa me ngā koha moni kē a ētehi rōpū, kamupene hoki tēnei rōpū i tū ai.

E whā tau te pakeke o te Whānau Ipurangi o Aotearoa (NZMIS) ināianei, ka mutu, e tautoko whānuitia ana e ngā tāngata me ngā rōpū Māori maha.

Toroa mai a – Karaitiana Taiuru Karaitiana@nzmis.org.nz

Ko ‘ISOC Aotearoa’ te wāhanga Aotearoa (e hanga tonuhia ana) o te rōpū ipurangi o te Ao katoa e mōhiotia nei ko ‘ISOC’.

E ai ki te ‘ISOC Aotearoa’, ko ana rauemi ko ana mema, arā ngā “tāngata hono” (ngā tāngata ipurangi o te ‘iwi whai-mātauranga’ nei) e whai hua ai mā te tautoko ake i ngā mahi a te ‘ISOC’ o te Ao, me te hiahia kia pai katoa anō hoki ngā āhuatanga ka pā mai ai ki te Ipurangi ki Aotearoa.

Mō tēnei wāhanga, toroa mai a: Jenny Shearer, ī-mēra : jshearer@cs.auckland.ac.nz

Tēnei Tono:

E tutuki ana i tēnei tono ngā ture katoa a te ‘ISOCNZ’ mō te ‘.maori’ hei tōmeina taumata tuarua mō te ‘.nz’. Kei te piki haere te nui o te aro mai ki tēnei take, ā, kua whakaāe kē mai Te Whānau Ipurangi o Aotearoa māna tēnei tōmeina e whakatau, ka mutu, ka whai hua kē te motu katoa ki te pēnei.

1  Te Hunga Aro Mai

Kua roa e kitea ana te Māori o Aotearoa i te Ipurangi, inā hoki ngā rohenga tōmeina nei: ‘Māori.com’, ‘.iwi.nz’, tae atu ki ‘www.taurawhiri.govt.nz’ me ‘www.maori.org.nz’, me ētehi atu. Ko te raru kē nei he whāiti kē te aronga o te ingoa whakawā tōmeina taumata tuarua nei ‘.iwi.nz’, i whāiti kē ai nā te mea ko ngā iwi Māori tonu kē anake i āhei mai ki tēnei ingoa, ka mutu, ka mahue mai ana ērā atu katoa o ngā Māori me ō te Māori āhuatanga katoa; ōna tika kētanga, ōna toi, ōna āhuatanga reo, ōna āhuatanga noho anō hoki.

E ai ki te rīpoata nei “Cyber-Iwi Are Putting Their Culture Online” nā Pita Sinclair (he kairīpoata ipurangi), ka puta ki te niupepa nei te ‘NZ Herald’ i te 17 o Oketopa i te tau 2000, nō tana rangahautanga ka tūmeke ia kia kite ake i te huhua o ngā mea Māori ki te Ipurangi, arā tana kī “struck by the extraordinary richness of the Māori contribution to the Web, and fascinated by the impact of a global medium on a tribal culture”. Ko te raru nei ko te motuhake kē o te kupu nei ‘.iwi’ inā rā hoki kāore kē i te whai wāhi ētehi Māori katoa ki raro i tēnei karangatanga, arā rātou kei ngā taone kē e noho tūturu ana, me ngā Māori anō hoki i tukuna kia mātao haere kē ngā ahi kā roa o te kāinga tūturu. Āe, he ahakoa anō ngā rīpoata a Sinclair mō te huhua o te ‘Māori’ ki te ipurangi me te pai anō hoki kia perā, ka mate tonu ia ki te kimi haere i te hapori ‘Māori’ nei nāna anō i tohu inā rā te wehewehe kē.

Ki tā mātou e tono nei, mā te whakaara i te tōmeina taumata tuarua nei ‘.maori’ ka whakamahi haerehia e te Māori puta noa i ana whāinga mahi. Kātahi tonu nei pea ka whakamanahia te hapori ‘Māori’ o te ipurangi. Mā konei anō hoki e kitea te whānuitanga ake o ngā whāinga katoa a tēnei hapori, ka mutu, mā te tōmeina ‘.maori.nz’ kātahi anō pea ka tika te whakaaturanga o tēnei hei hapori motuhake. E tukuna ana hoki tēnei tono e Te Whānau Ipurangi o Aotearoa, he rōpū tēnei ehara kē i te iwi tūturu engari ko te kanohi kitea kē o te Māori ki te ipurangi. Ko te tino whāinga ko te aro whakamua kē ki te hapori Māori, ehara kē i te titiro whakamuri kē ki te iwi, he ahakoa anō tōna mana tōna tapu tōna ihi tōna wehi, hei te Ao hurihuri kē nei he āhuatanga kotahi anake kē tēnei te iwitanga nō te Māori.

2  Tikanga Whānui

He tikanga nui te mōtika tangata e hāpaingia nei e te kāwanatanga o Niu Tīreni, ā, e te hapori ipurangi o te Ao anō hoki, ā, nō konā anō i tono ai mātou. E tukuna ana tēnei tono hei whakamana i ngā mōtika tangata e tohu ana kia whai wāhi motuhake ake tēnā hapori, tērā hapori, ki te ipurangi, ehara kē i te mea mō te Māori anake, engari mō te katoa kē o ngā iwi rerekē kei Aotearoa nei e noho ana.

E aronui kē ana te tono ‘.maori’ nei ki te hapori kotahi, tō te Māori, e kimi ana hei rōpū i ngā hua ipurangi o te ‘Ohaoha Mātauranga’ nei me ō te whakawhanaketanga ā-iwi anō hoki. E noho mana ā-ture ana hoki ngā tikanga kia whai wāhi atu te Māori ki ngā āhuatanga katoa o te noho hapori nei ki Aotearoa, ka mutu kei roto anō hoki i te mārama haeretanga o te motu whānui ki te Tiriti o Waitangi me ōna tikanga tēnei tikanga e mana ana.

Ahakoa anō, e tukuna ana anō tēnei tono hei whakaaraara ake i ngā tikanga o ngā iwi katoa kei te motu nei e noho ana kia whai ‘kāinga’ motuhake ia hapori nei ki te ipurangi. E mārama ana anō hoki kāore i te tukuna tēnei tono ingoa tōmeina hei whai whakarārangitanga tohutohu, arā ehara kau kē i te mea e tono ana hei whakarārangi haere i ngā kamupene Māori, kāore. Ko te mea nui kē nei mā te ingoa tōmeina taumata tuarua nei ‘.maori’ e mana tonu ai ngā mōtika tangata o te motu nei ki te motu nei, ā, ki te Ao whānui anō hoki o te ipurangi.

Ko te hiahia o Te Whānau Ipurangi o Aotearoa me te Kōmiti Ārahi o te wāhanga Aotearoa (e hanga tonuhia ana) o te rōpū ipurangi o te Ao, kia noho hei tono tuatahi kē tēnei tono ‘.maori’ mō te katoa o ngā tono pēnei a ngā hapori maha o Aotearoa, arā ngā tono tōmeina taumata tuarua. Ākuanei kei ngā reo kē o te motu nei e tohungia ana ēnei hapori. Hei tauira atu nei ko te hapori Hainamana nei tētehi e kaha ana te kōkiri i ngā āhuatanga ipurangi me te mātau anō hoki ki ngā hangarau whai pānga. Hei ā tōna wā pea ka ara ake te hiahia o te hapori Hainamana kia whakaatu ake i tōna haporitanga, ki te whakawhanake rānei i ōna ī-ohaoha i roto i tōna reo (Hāina), me te whakaatu anō ‘nō Niu Tīreni’ kē rātou, arā, kia whai wāhi i raro i te karangatanga tōmeina nei ‘.nz’.

3  Ngā Whakatutuki Kētanga mō Niu Tīreni i te Ao Hurihuri

Nō reira ehara kē i te mea e tukuna ana te tono ‘.maori’ nei hei tono motuhake kē (ahakoa ōna āhuatanga motuhake), engari rā hei tautoko kē i ngā tini iwi o Niu Tīreni i te ipurangi. E ai ki tā te ‘ISOCNZ’ ture mō ngā ingoa tōmeina taumata tuarua:

Mā te wā anō e whakawhanake te wāhi ki ngā ingoa tōmeina taumata tuarua kia rite ki te noho o ngā iwi ki Aotearoa nei.

Kei te tutuki i tēnei tono atu ngā whakaritenga o tēnei ture. Kua mārama kē hoki te kupu nei ‘.maori’ ki te katoa o te hunga kei Aotearoa e noho ana, ka mutu, kāore kē atu hoki he kupu i tua atu o tēnei. Nō reira e tono ana mātou kia tau mai te kupu nei’.maori’ hei kupu mō roto i te whakawhanake noatanga o te ipurangi i Aotearoa.

4. Whakatauranga

Ko te hiahia o Te Whānau Ipurangi o Aotearoa kia riro māna tēnei tōmeina taumata tuarua ‘.maori.nz’ hei whakatau. Ko tōna whakapono anō hoki kia noho tūwhera tonu tēnei tōmeina taumata tuarua kaua ki te tangata Māori anake, ēngari ki te katoa o ngā pae whakaata e whai kaupapa Māori ana (kia pono hoki tēnei whai), pēnei me ā ētehi whare wānanga, tari kāwanatanga, kura anō hoki.

Nāku noa nā,

Mō Te Whānau Ipurangi o Aotearoa,

Karaitiana Taiuru

Heamana – Te Whānau Ipurangi o Aotearoa. Mō ‘ISOC Aotearoa’

Jenny Shearer Heamana

maori.nz application 3 – 2002

The original submission which successfully created the worlds first un moderated Indigenous Domain Name .maori.nz for use by anyone in the world.

Te Whānau Ipurangi/New Zealand Mäori Internet Society

 Overview

New Zealand is a bicultural country with two official languages that may be spoken anywhere. As with any bicultural country, allowances should be made to accommodate both cultures.

Presently the New Zealand Internet domain name system has not addressed the bicultural needs of New Zealand nor it’s growing Mäori Internet users. 46% of New Zealand Mäori have Internet access and 65% of New Zealand European’s have Internet access 1.

A small effort was made in the past with the creation of .iwi.nz but this only caters to 30-40 groups in New Zealand, many of which are either not on the web or are not structured enough to apply for <.iwi.nz> (further discussion in Principle 2).

2. Qualifying Criteria

Main Principles for Registration of Second Level Domain Names

InternetNZ, which administers the New Zealand Internet domain name system, has defined the criteria for second level domain names. The criteria as follows:

1. There is a clear common interest shared by the entities that would reside within the domain – e. there exists a community of interest.
2. Communities of interest do not overlap, so far as is
3. The domain name clearly indicates or describes the nature of the community of
4. The community of interest is certain of continued

These requirements are addressed in the following sections.

Principle One: Community of Interest

Te Whänau Ipurangi/New Zealand Mäori Internet Society is a large Incorporated Society of over 1200 members. Due to our diverse membership we are the only authoritive spokes- group for Mäori. We are a spokes group for organisations such as Te Puni Kôkiri (Ministry of Mâori Development) regarding the digital divide and are group members of other organisations such as the “Electronic Action Team Network (EATN)”.

Most of the 1200 members are supporters of <.maori.nz>.

We are applying for <.maori.nz> on behalf of all Mäori.

1. AC Nielson Netwatch 2000

Principle Two: No Overlapping of Communities of Interest. General

It could be said that <iwi.nz> and <maori.nz> are overlapping names. However whilst it is true that <iwi.nz> could be subsumed by <maori.nz>, the reverse is not the case, for

<maori.nz> is the much wider descriptor.

<iwi.nz>

The domain name <iwi.nz> represents a traditional social and political organisation, which today is evolving into an economic organisation as well. At the moment it would apply to between 30 and 40 recognised tribal groups, not all of which have become formally incorporated in the non-Mäori sense, and therefore eligible to register an <iwi.nz> domain name. There are presently about eighteen <iwi.nz> domain names registered, and we expect more to be registered in due course.

With such low registrations it might be thought that it ought to be cancelled as a domain name.

However it does represent a special form of Mäori organisation, some of which are also developing into major entities within the Aotearoa New Zealand economy. The modern form of these entities is developing out of organisations that have existed for as long as the history of the Mäori people in Aotearoa New Zealand, and no other descriptor other than

<iwi.nz> can adequately describe them. To try to describe them by later imported names such as <co.nz> or <org.nz> would be to deny their special meaning, and their historical significance.

It might also be thought that eligibility for the domain name <iwi.nz> could be widened to describe a greater range of Mäori organisations.

The descriptor “iwi”, as it describes both a traditional and a modern organisation, has a clearly defined meaning in Mäori society. This is quite restrictive and is the meaning chosen by TWI / NZMIS, To widen eligibility would be to debase the meaning of “iwi”.

<iwi.nz> has a definite place in the hierarchy of domain names as a traditional and modern social, political and economic Mäori organisation which is not described by any other domain name.

<maori.nz>

It could also be said that <maori.nz> would overlap many other domain names, and that Mäori people could adequately be catered for under existing names.

Nevertheless, the most important factor is that “Mäori” is the way that Mäori people choose to describe themselves, and they are almost always described as “Mäori” by non- Mäori people. In this proposal Mäori people are simply asking that they be allowed to prescribe their own descriptor of themselves.

We are not asking for anything new. We are merely asking that an oversight be corrected. It is understandable that Mäori domain names were not created at the time, given that the widespread application of the internet, and its widespread adoption by Mäori, could easily have been overlooked.

<maori.nz> will be widely used by individuals and organisations, and we predict that it will be a popular domain name.

Principle Three: Degree of Descriptiveness

“Mäori” is the way Mäori people and their organisations invariably describe themselves, and it is the way they are described by others, the world over.

The experience of TWI / NZMIS webmaster members is that tens of thousands of web- surfers from all over the world are looking for Mäori-specific information on the WWW, and that for a great many of them, “Mäori” best describes what is unique and special about Aotearoa New Zealand.

We make the point, that this proposal represents a people asking InternetNZ to help them claim their right to name themselves.

Principle Four: Certainty of continued existence

It can be guaranteed that there will always be a demand for the <.maori.nz> domain name, such is the support for it among Mäori, and such is the likely continuance of a distinctive people named Mäori.

Te Whänau Ipurangi / New Zealand Mâori Internet Society (TWI/NZMIS) is confident also that it’s 6 year existence will continue through it’s long term strategic plans, and the fact that it is a legal body registered as an Incorporated Society in 2000.

Treaty of Waitangi Considerations

Partnership – As partners to the Treaty of Waitangi it is time the domains named for the New Zealand Internet community reflected the makeup of our society. Granting this application demonstrates that the NZ Internet community is determined to become bi- cultural.

Maori Language is an official Language of New Zealand

The Mäori language is an official language of New Zealand regulated by statute. The current 2nd Level domain policy has very little regard to the this fact. The one and only Mäori 2nd Level domain <.iwi.nz> is so specific it only applies to about 30-40 groups. This is not a fair representation of an official language of New Zealand.

Conclusion

Te Whänau Ipurangi/New Zealand Mäori Internet Society and it’s membership believe that there is a strong case to be made for <.maori.nz> second level domain name and that it meets the key requirements as set out by InternetNZ

maori.nz application 3 2002 – public submissions

Public submissions for the successful .maori.nz application as retrieved

from http://web.archive.org/web/20040820223324/http://www.internetnz.net.nz/dns/2nd

-level-domains/maorinz-submissions/index.html

• Ketia Waaka and whānau
• Hamuera Orupe McLeod
• Kalani Koi Tarawa
• Solomon Tipene
• Sandy Walker
• Robert R Dyer
• Des Te Kanawa
• Beau Reweti
• Tewhano Kaihe
• Makere Harawira
• Helen Savage
• Jody Allen
• David Farrar
• Tetauhou Nohotima
• Bernadette Murray
• Taaringaroa Nicholas
• Rhonda Thomson
• Vaughan Puketapu
• Robert Sullivan
• Colin Heke

Ketia Waaka

Rreceived on 5 June 2002 Tena Koe,

My family and I recently heard about the idea of having the new domain name Maori.org. We think it is a fantastic way for those inclined to express themselves. It shows individuality and is very appealing to myself especially. We hope that it will come into effect as soon as possible, so that we can tell all of our friends and extended whanau of it’s existence. I know of many people in and out of New Zealand who would be interested in using this great domain name. I am writing this on behalf of four other people also.

Ketia Waaka Toro Waaka Marion Waaka Bonny Waaka Renee Te Hau

 

Hamuera Orupe McLeod

Received on 4 June 2002 Kia ora te iwi,

Mo to panui e hiahia ai koutou kia whaka- tu te tahi Papakainga rorohiko mo te iwi Maori. Kia ora koutou e kare ma. Anei taku koha tuhituhi nga kia mohio ai koutou ko au te tahi Tangata e hia ana kia awhina koutou mo tenei mea.

Kia mohio ano kouotou i tuku-ngaatu au te tahi reta ki taku whanau me aku hoa mahi kia tuhi mai ratou kia koutou ki te awhi ai te maori mo tenai mea.

No reira, kia mau ai tatou te mea nei na. Ka pai te ra. Ma te ariki nui tatau hei mannaki Naku noa,

Hamuera Orupe McLeod (Tamakaimoana)

 

Kalani Koi Tarawa

Received on 4 June 2002

Solomon Tipene

Received on 4 June 2002

I fully support the application for a 2nd level domain name “Maori .nz” tendered by the NZ Maori Internet Society. I work for an open learning organisation called Mahi Ora based in Te Awamutu. As an education provider, we work hard to encourage our students to utilize the internet as well as other IT tools in their studies. There are currently 14,000 students enrolled on the Mahi Ora distance learning programme and the issue of a dedicated Maori internet site is often raised in the numerous consultation hui held around New Zealand.

Having a dedicated 2nd level site can be extremely helpful when students wish to focus and narrow down the search process. If this dedicated site can indeed help those thousands of Maori that are now coming onstream, then it deserves support.

Solomon Tipene

Tauihu-External Relations Manager

Sandy Walker

Received on 30 May 2002 Tena koutou,

I’m writing to support the proposed maori.nz domain name.

I am part of a new company formed by a group of Maori. We would love to be able to clearly advertise ourselves as a Maori company who operates from a Maori perspective. Using maori.nz will definitely enable us to do this.

The creation of iwi.nz was a positive move for all Maori. However the creation of maori.nz means organisations such as mine can also identify positively as Maori.

Although there are currently alternatives that we could use in business, maori.nz is far more definitive and descriptive of who we are and what we do.

Naku noa,

na Sandy Walker Whaihua Consultants Ltd

 

Robert R Dyer

Received on 30 May 2002 Dear Sirs,

I wish to support the application from the Te Whanau Ipurangi/New Zealand Maori Internet Society to create a new second level domain “.maori.nz”. Those of us outside New Zealand who cannot return there will be grateful for this opportunity to share in this new adventure to establish the Maori renaissance both within New Zealand and in the larger international community where it is winning increasing respect. In the 1940’s my father, Lt. Col. H.G. Dyer of the 28th. (Maori) Battalion in WWII, instilled in me his love and respect for Rangi Royal, Padre Harawira and his other friends in the Battalion. He taught me Maori, as he wanted me to devote my life to trying to bring together the traditions of Britain and its colonies and those of Ra iatea and its colonies, for I was a child of two worlds. Such an attempt was impossible in the New Zealand of those days, and my identity was concealed, so I have lived abroad in the pursuit of my parents dream. I believe I speak from the legacy of the Battalion of those days, in expressing my joy at this project, and the hope that it can be for me, from France, an opportunity to share what Maori and Pakeha learned together in those years.

Robert R. Dyer

Retired Professor of Latin and Greek Paris, France

 

Des Te Kanawa

Received on 29 May 2002

Tena Koutou

Nga mihi nui ki a koutou.

What a fabulous idea – I cant wait for this to happen!

I definately will register my name and am still thinking of a domain name; perhaps something like www.manawhenua.maori.nz. Surely this comes under the Treaty Partnership?

naku noa

Des Te Kanawa Hamilton

 

Beau Reweti

Received on 29 May 2002

On Behalf of the 300 strong Maori Education Caucus of the Ministry of Education I would like to endorse the application for the second level domain of maori.nz. The success of this application would be a strong indicator of the bicultural nature of our society, a recognition of the place of maori in NZ society, a magnet for maori to have their identity acknowledged in personal and business domains and a signal that NZ society has embraced the notion of inclusivity as a tenet of the ICT industry in New Zealand.

Beau Reweti

Chief Adviser Maori/Kaitohutohu Matua Maori

Ministry of Education

 

Tewhano Kaihe

Received on 28 May 2002 Waitaha e, Waitaha e,

Kia ata whakatere i te waka nei kei pariparia e te tai, ka monenehu te kura. W hakamarotia atu ano, ka whakahoki mai ki te kapu whakapipi. Ka mate kainga tahi, ka ora kainga rua!

Kia ora Tatou, I wish to support the application from the Te Whanau Ipurangi/New Zealand Maori Internet Society to create a new second level domain “.maori.nz”. It is time that the Tangata Whenua were accorded there own means to communicate in this modern world with their own “branding” and Identity. I for one will use this medium rather than the UK based system I currently use.

Makere Harawira

Received on 28 May 2002 Tena koe, tena koutou

I very much support the application for the second-level domain name of ‘maori.nz’ on behalf of all Maori. In my view, having access to a unique pan-Maori signifier is a crucial aspect of our development within the IT field and the online community at large. If this application is successful as I certainly hope, I look forward to being able to register myself and my company using an appropriate name such tekokako.maori.nz.

Heoi ano

Makere Harawira

Te Kokako Consultancy

 

Helen Savage

Received on 27 May 2002

I would like to support the 2nd domain level for NZMIS as in the future I could place a site on the net for my whanau or other interested parties etc.

Kia ora

Helen Savage

Jody Allen

Received on 27 May 2002

Kia ora mai

I would like to offer my support for the new, proposed 2nd level domain name – .maori.nz . I think it is an excellent idea, one which people with an interest in things Maori could use and one which may create more interest, in things Maori.

I know there would be a number of people (especially Maori – myself included) who would see this as an opportunity to establish authentic Maori websites using this 2nd level domain name.

With this in mind, I think more Maori content on the net would have many benefits for many people, Maori and non-Maori alike. This is particularly significant for all New Zealanders in this, United Nation’s Year of Cultural Heritage. The International community has emphasised the need for a specific focus on the protection of intangible cultural heritage, often embodied in indigenous languages. I feel this 2nd level domain name could only help.

Mauriora ki a koutou katoa

Jody Allen

Kaiako Tikanga-a-rua/ Bicultural Educator

Nga Mokopuna a Tanne-te-Waiora/ Maori Health Unit Wellington Hospital

 

David Farrar

Received on 27 May 2002

I support in principle the application to form an unmoderated 2LD of maori.nz.

I believe that it is a good example of a community of interest and will be a beneficial addition to the .nz name space.

As this will be the first un-moderated 2LD added to .nz in at least seven years there are a couple of issues that the applicant should be asked to consider before final approval is given. These are:

• reserved domains

Should any names be reserved? www.maori.nz? registry.maori.nz? nzmis.maori.nz?

• initial application

Some names will probably be very popular and may have dozens of people wishing to register them. The applicant should consider how on deals with initial applications. If one has it as pure first in first served then this will provide an incentive for registrars to try to submit hundreds of registrations all at the same split second when the new domain goes live and this could result in registry problems and encourage bad behaviour by registrars.

A land rush period could be considered where applications may be listed and a random draw is held to see who gains the name. Or alternatively an auction could be held but this would be a significant policy issue.

If a random draw is held the issue of whether there is a non refundable application fee has to be considered and also the issue of not allowing multiple applications from the one registrant.

David Farrar.

 

 

Tetauhou Nohotima

Received on 27 May 2002 Kia ora,

I would like to support the new 2nd Level domain name which is proposed . I think it is a wonderful idea to be able to have such a name which could be used by anyone with an interest in Maori.

It would be my intention to register at least my own name when the domain becomes available like www.te-kokona.maori.nz what a beautiful way to portray ones self.

I can think of one or 2 other names I would register. Please let us have our own identity. tetauhou nohotima

 

Bernadette Murray

Received on 27 May 2002

Kia ora

I would like to support the new 2nd Level domain name which is proposed . I would be so proud to “advertise” and identify myself as maori.

I look forward, with great excitement, to the day our application becomes a reality.

Naku noa na Bernadette Murray Moerewa Northland.

 

Taaringaroa Nicholas

Received on 27 May 2002 To whom it may concern,

I would like to wholeheartedly support the new domain name maori.nz. This is a name which is unique to New Zealand. It provides a place for Maori in the new Knowledge Economy and supports the current government’s Knowledge Wave policy.

It provides a way of giving Maori a hand up at no cost. Well done to all those concerned.

Taaringaroa Nicholas

 

Rhonda Thomson

Received on 27 May 2002 Tena koe,

I would like to support the new 2nd Level doamin name which is proposed . It is my intention to register a name when the tld becomes available Naaku noa. Na

Rhonda Thomson

Art Adviser – Maori and Cultural Christchurch City Council

 

Vaughan Puketapu

Received on 27 May 2002 Kia ora Koutou,

I am in full support of this being provided and it would create a unqiue way of being well positioned to effectively market Maori Arts and crafts as well as maori developed software. developed by Maori for Maori. I to would give serious thought to also utilising this for developing my own unqiue space and presence on the web.

Vaughan Puketapu Systems Administrator

 

Robert Sullivan

Received on 23 May 2002 Kia ora,

I support the creation of the maori.nz domain name as this will enable us to establish websites that are authentically Maori.

The domain name is a similar initiative to the Toiiho trademark (see www.toiiho.com) which attempts to establish a way of ensuring the cultural integrity of artworks.

Cultural and intellectual property rights were a feature of the recent “National Digital Forum” in Wellington. The establishment of the maori.nz domain name will enhance our ability to appropriately mount digital resources on the Web that pertain to Maori.

heoi anoo, Robert Sullivan

Te Kaiwhakahaere Maori / Library Manager, Maori Services Te Tumu Herenga /

The University of Auckland Library

 

Colin Heke

Received on 20 May 2002 Kia ora,

I would like to support the new 2nd Level doamin name which is proposed . I think it is a wonderful idea to be able to have such a name which could be used by anyone with an interest in Maori.

It would be my intention to register at least my own name when the tld becomes available like www.heke.maori.nz what a beautiful way to portray ones self.

I can think of one or 2 other names I would register. Please let us have our own identity. Col Heke

 

maori.nz application 3 2002 – implementation submissions

Once the .maori.nz domain name had been accepted, the decision of how to implement it was then another public submission.

The end result after a number of discussions was to not moderate .maori.nz. The reason was simply as that the domain name was not about race. It was for anyone and any organisation that wanted to be identified online or their online content to be identified as being Māori.

No one has any right to judge how Māori a person is or to decline an application as it was not Māori enough.

It was also made clear by members of InternetNZ that a moderated .maori.nz domain would be fiercely opposed and deemed racist. Though I do not ever recall considering .maori.nz to be moderated due to the basic fundamentals of being Māori.

Submitters

NZ Maori Internet Society Steven Heath

Te Ropu Whakahau

Nadege Tissot

Precious Clark

NZ Maori Internet Society

Received 5 July 2002 Kia ora Debbie,

On behalf of New Zealand Māori Internet Society (NZMIS):

1. NZMIS desires a short period of time to “purchase” a selected amount of .maori.nz 2LD’s such as nzmis.maori.nz and other relevant 2LD’s for the society and to protect the mana and sensitivity of certain other
2. We support an initial “lottery style” opening for .maori.nz but would not like to see a “high non refundable” application fee fixed to each application as we believe it would discriminate many of the “community of interest”. We would support a small, or preferably a no application fee for the initial lottery

Nāhaku noa, nā Karaitiana Taiuru Chairperson

NZ Māori Internet Society

Steven Heath

Received 5 July 2002 Dear DNC,

Submissions are open on what conditions, if any, should be applied to the creation of maori.nz 2LD.

I believe that no special treatment should be applied to the introduction of the 2LD.

The approach of ‘first come first served’ should apply to maori.nz just like all other registrations in the .nz name space.

I firmly believe that no names should be reserved for any reason in the registry, either on behalf of the applicant or anyone else. To allow this makes a mockery of the entire foundation of ‘first come first served’ polocy and is counter to what I believe are the fundamental principles of the .nz policy. Nor do I think should any access be granted for the applicant to register names before it is open to the local internet community. The policy does not grant any rights or benefits to the applicant of a 2LD request, they merely are requesting the creation of this 2LD and are not the custodians of it.

One key area I think needs to be determined is a communications plan for the implementation of this 2LD. All stakeholders must be given ample time to prepare for the launch of this new 2LD. I would think that at least 60 days notice be given before registrations are accepted. This would allow awareness for potential registrants as well as for .nz name providers and/or accredited registrars to be able to support request for maori.nz names.

This creation is precedent setting as it is the first to reach this point under the 1997 2LD creation policy. Therefore any allowances for this new 2LD would likely be requested for any subsequent applications that reach this point.

Steven Heath

PS Please note that I was a part of InternetNZ council when the interim ruling was made and did vote in favour of it.

 

Te Ropu Whakahau

Received 4 July 2002

Kia ora

On behalf of Te Ropu Whakahau – Maori Library and Information Workers’ Association,I wish to support the creation of the maori.nz domain name.

At the moment Wellington City Libraries, are allowing free access to a limited range of domains, from dedicated PC’s within the libraries and ‘iwi.nz’ is one of the selected domains. If we could have a comprehensive maori.nz domain, this would hopefully open up a far broader range of ‘free’ sites which our customers would access free of charges.

The kinds of sites we are providing for our customers: are iwi.nz, org.nz, govt.nz, ac.nz , etc and so this action would show a real spirit of Treaty partnership, in allowing those without access to home computers, to come to the library and tap in to the wide range of maori sites.

Our ropu would like to tautoko the previous submissions who argued for authenticity and the protection of cultural and intellectual property, the endorsement of the bicultural nature of our society, recognition of the place of Maori in our society, and the endorsement of the place of Maori in the Knowledge economy.

Ann Reweti Secretary

Te Ropu Whakahau

 

Nadege Tissot

Received 20 June 2002

From: Nadege Tissot, Project Coordinator, WAI 262. Tena Koe,

On behalf of the Wai 262 Claimants, I send the following submission for the maori.nz domain name.

The Wai 262 Claim, also known as the Indigenous Flora and Fauna Claim or the Indigenous Treasures claims (me o ratou taonga katoa) was filed in 1991 by Haana Murray of Ngati Kuri, Hema Nui a Tawhaki Witana (also known as Dell Wihongi) of Te Rarawa, John Hippolite (now deceased) of Ngati Koata, Tama Poata of Whanau a Rua/Ngati Porou, Katarina Rimene of Ngati Kahungunu and Te Witi McMath (now deceased) of Ngati Wai.

The claimants believe that a maori.nz domain is a necessary step towards the recognition of Maori having their own identity on the internet. Because the iwi.nz is restricted to iwi use, the maori.nz is needed for other Maori organizations, Trusts or individuals that wish to mark their identity through their Website address.

The Wai 262 Claimants would reserve the domain name wai262.maori.nz when available and use it instead of the wai262.co.nz currently being held.

Kia ora, Nadege Tissot

 

Precious Clark

Received 20 June 2002

Kia Ora

My name is Precious Clark and I am of Ngati Whatua descent. I do not purport to comment on behalf of my people. I make this submission on behalf of myself.

To begin with I support the initiative of creating a second level domain name and commend the work that has been done to date.

I do have a number of issues however, which probably should have been raised during the initial round of submissions, but I will raise them regardless.

I disagree that the maori.nz domain name should me made available to all New Zealanders. There are huge commercial benefits that can flow on for Maori from the registration of this domain name and Maori should be the main if not exclusive beneficiaries of this domain name. The identity and word “Maori” belongs to Maori and non-Maori should not be granted the right to use that word without Maori permission. Furthermore, a non-Maori organisation should not assume ownership over the word “Maori” and thereby grant the right to use this domain name without Maori permission.

Issues of this nature are currently the subject of a claim before the Waitangi Tribunal. The Wai 262 claim is a claim to indigenous flora and fauna and matauranga Maori (or traditional as well as developed knowledge). Wai 262 extends beyond this and at the heart of the claim is the right to tino rangatiratanga and ownership of taonga Maori which includes language and thus extends to the word “Maori”. It is undoubted that Maori will take issue with a non- Maori organisation or individual asserting ownership rights over a Maori name to the detriment of Maori.

Although it is problematic to define what is a Maori organisation it is not impossible. The new Tax regime for Maori businesses looks at this very issue and while it is not perfect, this model provides a good base. Furthermore the “Maori Made Mark” by Te Waka Toi allows organisations that are in partnership with Maori to register to use the Mark. A similar approach can be adopted in this situation.

To this end it is suggested that when deciding a process for registration of the domain name, at the very least Maori should be given preferential treatment. I recommend that those who can prove to be a Maori organisation (based upon similar criteria set in the New Tax Regime for Maori Business and the Maori Made Mark requirements) or an individual who can prove Maori descent (similar to requirements set out in scholarship applications) should be entitled to register for use of the domain name over non-Maori.

Thank you for your consideration. If you have any queries please do not hesitate to contact me on 021 773 749. I do not wish to appear before the Select Committee.

Naaku noa, na Precious Clark

 

maori.nz growth 2002-2016

maori.nz registrations from the date it was created in 2002 till the end of December 2016. A number of considerations should be taken into account when looking at the low numbers including:

1. Māori access to the web
2. Registrars who do not promote nz
3. The rise in 2012-2013 was about the time that there was wide spread domain name abuse in nz

 

Year	.maori.nz Registrations
Dec-02	365
Dec-03	310
Dec-04	373
Dec-05	385
Dec-06	458
Dec-07	483
Dec-08	534
Dec-09	554
Dec-10	621
Dec-11	663

Dec-12	1143
Dec-13	1140
Dec-14	1061
Dec-15	981
Dec-16	900

 

 

Māori.NZ

māori.nz is the world’s first indigenous International Domain Name (contains a non-English character) to be implemented and as of 2017 still is the only one.

While māori is very similar to maori.nz, the domain name has a macron on which technically makes this an International Domain Name (IDN).

māori.nz was made available on July 26, 2010. The original announcement here and the public consultations here.

The .māori.nz domain and the way it became a default for any .maori.nz registration essentially providing two domain names for the one registration giving the registrant a choice to use one or both versions was never sought by the Māori community, but was decided by the IDN Working Group (Dave Moskovitz, Karaitiana Taiuru, Sam Vilain and Nick Wallingford) that this was technically feasible and would be easier to manage than requiring two registrations per .maori.nz application. It is also the most beneficial option for the Māori community and for the .nz community.

To use the .māori.nz suffix does require some technical knowledge and changes for web servers. In 2017 it was still not possible to use IDN email addresses properly.

To allow visitors to visit a web site with the .māori.nz domain or other address with a macron, a small configuration is required on the web server to recognise the macron. Presently macrons and other non-Latin characters utilize punycode and will often require a web server to have the punycode address set up as a second domain name.

 

Macrons in .nz

Macrons ā, ē, ī, ō ,ū can be used in all .nz domain names thus reflecting the correct written usage of te reo Māori.

In 2005 I wrote to the Domain Name Commissioner asking it to consider introducing the ability to use macrons ā, ē, ī, ō, ū to effectively write and use the Māori language in .nz domain names. I quoted the Māori Language Act, Te Taura Whiri i te Reo Māori orthographic conventions and Te Tiriti to show the importance and need for the ability to use macrons in web addresses.

I was very aware at this stage that the implementation would have some issues, but that that the international technical community were looking at solutions and had been for some time for other language character sets such as Chinese, Hindi and Arabic.

The biggest issue was with Māori language implementation into technology. The ability to create macrons on computers and on the web was still in its infancy. It was also costly to purchase software that created macrons. There was the free Te Ngutu Kura Māori Spell checker that included a free macron package and the commercial software Te Kete Ipurangi keyboard (the original Māori language keyboard) was still in popular usage.

While Te Kete pushed Māori language into technology and was popular with government and universities, the approach was to use umlauts and then make them appear as macrons with special Māori fonts (innovative at the time). This created a lot of confusion as people were using umlauts and not macrons and required a lot of rethinking and undoing what they knew. The umlauts also created an issue with macrons in domain names as some people were using umlauts instead of macrons.

In 2007 the Domain Name Commissioner sought expressions for a working group to consider introducing IDN into .nz. The Terms of Reference are here. The Working Group members were Dave Moskovitz, Karaitiana Taiuru, Sam Vilain and Nick Wallingford. The Domain Name Commissioner then invited to join the working group other experts: Wareko Te Angina, from Te Taura Whiri i te Reo Māori (Māori Language Commission) and Philip Greene, the InternetNZ Victoria University Cyberlaw Fellow. Though I don’t recall seeing any of them at meetings.

There were three public consultations – December 20, 2007 – July 18 2008 – May 26 2009 that discussed a number of technical and implementing topics. Submissions ranged from Māori language to copyright issues. Details of the submissions are in the above-mentioned links.

On July 26 2010 the ability to use macrons in .nz addresses was implemented. Growth has been slow and not much publicity around the options to include macrons ever occurred and the majority of registrars do not offer IDN registrations.

An up-to-date list of registrars who do offer IDN is available at the Domain Name Commissioner web site.

 

NZ.SOC.MAORI

nz.soc.maori was the first Māori USENET group was proposed by me, publicly voted and approved in 2002 with a public vote that closed midnight on 18 Dec 2002. nz.soc.maori joined about 29 other New Zealand groups (see below).

The original idea was to apply for nz.maori but I was advised by the key people of nz. UseNet at the time Simon Lyall and David Farrar that the community would likely be more supportive of Māori being in the society category. I took their advice and the modified rationale and charter were put to the vote.

Usenet is the world’s largest collection of electronic discussions, consisting of tens of thousands of “newsgroups.” People post messages, others reply, and still others reply to those replies. Unlike chat rooms (such as those on Internet Relay Chat), newsgroup discussions aren’t conducted in real-time; you can read and respond to what others have posted anytime you like. Newsgroups can provide information, entertainment, support, and more.

Proponent: Karaitiana Taiuru

Independent Votetaker: David Farrar

Vote Results

There were 35 YES votes and 3 NO votes, for a total of 38 valid votes.

There were no abstains and 3 invalid ballots (double votes). Further details below.

Original RFD

nz.soc.maori REQUEST FOR DISCUSSION (RFD)

unmoderated newsgroup nz.soc.maori

This is a formal Request For Discussion (RFD) for the creation of an unmoderated nz.soc.maori Usenet newsgroup. This is not a Call for Votes (CFV.

NEWSGROUP LINE

nz.soc.maori: Discussion of Maori related topics and issues.

##Rationale##

The need for specific Mäori Internet facilities was made clear with the huge majority win for the creation of .maori.nz in September this year. Of approximately 1800 votes over 91% were in favour.

The existing Usenet groups are not suitable for in depth discussion about Mäori.

Mäori is a subset of the larger group New Zealand and arguably has many more potential sub groups that will likely be created in the near future.

Potential sub groups could include iwi, Maori language, tino rangatiratanga, rongoa, marae, hapu etc.

It is likely the group will be in existence for many years as it is for a group of people and an interest group who have existed for many years.

A Mäori Usenet group will provide a clear and comprehensive resource for the many enquiries that originate from international countries as well as from inside New Zealand.

This is not a racist request as many other cultural groups exist in Usenet .

It is envisaged that there will be adequate traffic as there are numerous scattered Mäori related email groups in existence. In Yahoogroups alone there are 69 groups, many of which are public. Groups include the Tino Rangatiratanga group which consists of over 528 members, the NZ Mäori Internet Society earlier this year was around the 1100 member mark. Both groups are common interest groups.

##Proposed Charter##

Any posts which deal with things of interest to or about Mäori are welcome and on-topic in this group. This includes discussions of local/national hui and events, international enquiries, translations from and into Mäori and English, promotion of Mäori language, news and views, Mäori initiatives, and anything else that relates to the area covered by the group.”

This is NOT a valid forum for hate posts against the groups intended audience nor is it intended for hate or inflammatory messages. The following things are not welcome:

Binaries

Chain letters, including “Make Money Fast” articles Known hoaxes (like the “Good Times Virus”)

Articles posted as separate copies to several newsgroups (spam)

Articles excessively cross-posted

Articles containing significantly more quoted than new content Duplicate/rapidly reposted messages

Commercial messages of any kind.

PROPONENT:

Karaitiana Taiuru karaitiana@ taiuru.maori.nz Ends

Voters Voted Yes

brian.harmer                     paradise.net.nz                         Brian Harmer c.chapman                 xtra.co.nz               Claire Chapman davejoll              es.co.nz       Dave Joll

dgk       metrocast.net                                        David King dramatic                            xtra.co.nz Richard Grevers

duncan                           adrock.com                    Duncan McCormack f4e  ihug.co.nz                    Mike Ballantine

galah                       subdimension.com                       Diāne Taylor gosnell    es.co.nz       David George joe.brown                        waiariki.ac.nz                        Joe Brown juliannasong                                  yahoo.com                              Julia Aranui-Faed j-williams          clear.net.nz             Julia Williams

karaitiana                       taiuru.maori.nz                                                Karaitiana Taiuru karetuarua                        hotmail.com                 V Clark koopu.whanau                        xtra.co.nz                Margaret Harris l.pope                                    axian.co.nz         Lynne Pope maakanic     hotmail.com   Mark Nicholas

mark               nznow.net.nz                                                Mark Proffitt moeau                                xtra.co.nz                                                 Veronica Rolinson news                    tracs.co.nz                          Mark Harris pete.mason                   nrait.co.nz                                    Peter Mason phowarth                     ihug.co.nz                       Peter Howarth

pki11                   student.canterbury.ac.nz                      Perry King r.sullivan       auckland.ac.nz       Robert Sullivan raymcintyre                           hotmail.com            Ray McIntyre robert.singers                          paradise.net.nz Robert Singers rosegl              xtra.co.nz       Bernadette Murray

sandywalker                   xtra.co.nz                     Sandria Walker screngle         paradise.net.nz                            Sue Crengle

shelby                     macdonald.co.nz                           Shelby Macdonald simon.drain                      paradise.net.nz      Simon Drain

taari              e-maori.com       Taaringaroa Nicholas teone              free.net.nz       Te One Hamuera

tich                clad.co.nz                    Richard Thomas zanetteward                 xtra.co.nz                                         Zanette Ward

 

Voted No

——————————————————————————

pleb          xpress.net.nz                                            Darl Singh rdawson   xtra.co.nz        Ross Dawson taba       slingshot.co.nz                                            Sam Wilkins

.nz USENET Groups at the time

nz.arts Discussion on the Arts.

nz.comp          Computing and computers.

nz.general       General information, announcements, etc

nz.net.announce        Status of Local & International Networks (Moderated) nz.net.admin Administrative issues to do with the National Network. nz.politics.announce   Political and government announcements. (Moderated) nz.politics Politics

nz.rec              Recreation.

nz.reg.auckland.general                     All about the City of Sails and Region nz.reg.bay-of-plenty.general Plenty to talk about in the BoP nz.reg.canterbury.general     Tales from the Garden City & Canterbury nz.reg.dunedin.general                                                           NZ’s Edinburgh is discussed all right here

nz.reg.gisborne.general                                               First to see the sun each day nz.reg.hamilton.general                                           Where it’s happening. nz.reg.hawkes-bay.general                                                The sunny wine capital of NZ

nz.reg.manawatu.general      Palmie North and Wanganui on-topic here nz.reg.nelson.general            The top talk of the South Island nz.reg.northland.general                                                Cyberdiscussion of the far North nz.reg.southland.general Net Discussions frrrom the deep south nz.reg.taranaki.general          Taranaki – the energy province nz.reg.wellington.general                                                Absolutely positively capital posts nz.reg.west-coast.general                          There’s gold in those postings

nz.soc              Social issues. nz.soc.green Environmental issues.

nz.soc.maori   Discussion of Maori related topics and issues. nz.soc.queer Discussion of issues related to the NZ queer community. nz.soc.religion            Eternal debates and discussion

nz.tech            Gadgets, electronics and technology in New Zealand nz.test NZ hierarchy test messages.

nz.wanted       Requests for sources, information, …

.nz Bilingual Proposal

Even though the Māori Language Act provides for legal recognition of Māori Language and bilingualism, the .nz domain name system ignores Māori language. This motivated me to seek for .nz to be made bilingual.

On August 18 2007 Karaitiana Taiuru on behalf of The New Zealand Māori Internet Society wrote an open letter to the governing bodies of .nz: IntertnetNZ and Domain Name Commissioner seeking co-operation for a bilingual domain name system in the .nz that reflected the Māori Language Act, Maori society and the Treaty.

Open Letter

Open Letter to InternetNZ and DNC 18 August 2007

Keith Davidson Debbie Monohan

Executive Director Domain Name Commissioner InternetNZ DNC

InternetNZ and DNC, Tēnā koe.

Re: Bilingual Domain Name System for .nz

Summary

New Zealand Māori Internet Society are writing to propose that the existing un-moderated .nz domain name hierarchy for .nz is made available bilingually to represent that Aotearoa/New Zealand is a legally bilingual country and to support its indigenous people’s cultural and linguistic requirements.

We are not proposing a new set of 2LD’s are created as per the DNC 2LD policies. We are asking that the existing .nz DNS is made available in both of Aotearoa/New Zealand’s officially spoken languages Māori and English.

Thus ensuring that any .nz registrant can be bilingual with out the added expense of a new registration and the possibility of disputes with an already registered domain name. We also anticipate that any future unmoderated 2LD’s are also immediately made bilingual on its release date.

An example of our proposal would be www.internet.net.nz is also available if InternetNZ wishes to utilise it as www.internetnz.ipu.nz .If InternetNZ did not wish to recognise it then they would not be obliged to.

Background:

The Internet is constantly maturing and adapting to the dynamics of the world. The original infrastructure of the Internet was founded on and catered exclusively to an English speaking centric world. This existing infrastructure is fast becoming obsolete and is constantly evolving.

Endangered indigenous languages such as Māori are being overrun by the English-centric Internet, however some languages are taking their fight for survival and status seriously. One culture the Catalan applied to ICANN and was approved for their own TLD .cat . The Scottish are currently discussing their own TLD as is the German district of Berlin.

Aotearoa/New Zealand Internet infrastructure has slowly matured with the creations of

.iwi.nz, .maori.nz and the discussions for IDN implementation to be on track with the international Internet communities maturity.

Proposal:

New Zealand Maori Internet Society are proposing the following bilingual 2LD’s for .nz as follows (in draft format):

.co.nz mahi.nz

.net.nz .ipu.nz

.org.nz .ropu.nz

.gen.nz .noa.nz school.nz kura.nz

ac.nz wananga.nz wānanga

If other Māori 2LD’s do not exist and there is a demand for them we accept that the new Community of Interest will follow the policy and procedures as set out by the DNC.

We have raised several issues in favor of a bilingual .nz DNS which will ensure the Aotearoa/NZ internet infrastructure would become language agnostic between our two national spoken languages; InternetNZ would recognise its commitment to the Treaty of Waitangi and the status of Te Reo Maori.

As an example of this countries commitment to recognising Maori as a legal language:

1. Māori language is the only other official spoken language of Aotearoa/New Zealand described under
2. Aotearoa/New Zealand founding legal documents described a partnership between European and Māori and the protection of Intellectual Property and
3. New Zealand is known by its bilingual name Aotearoa.
4. Many national icons are known by their bilingual names. Aoraki/Mount Cook, Taranaki/Mount Egmont . There are a plethora of
5. Aotearoa/New Zealand have a bilingual National
6. Aotearoa/New Zealand have bilingual
7. Aotearoa/New Zealand rugby team the All Blacks perform a Māori Haka prior to each game they represent our
8. .maori.nz is not a one size fits If a bicultural organisation desires to use .maori.nz they appear to be pro Māori or vice versa by using .co.nz .
9. .iwi.nz is solely for the handful of Māori organisations that are
10. Upon Kia ora being expressed in New Zealand, it is commonly understood as a Māori greeting. Kia ora is one of the 500 Māori words which has been adopted into NZ English language.
11. Little or no confusion would occur as status quo would still prevail but with an added option if desired.
12. Microsoft Corporation, Google, Apple and copious Open Source software is available in Māori and or the option to do so is available.
13. Kura Kaupapa Māori have were given the legal right to use “Kura” instead of “School” on their school bus.

The .nz name space will not be polluted for the following reasons:

1. Each registrant will still have control to their own domain
2. A registrant does not have to acknowledge that a bilingual 2ld exists for their
3. The DNS table will not be affected with multiple new fields in the parent
4. The DNC New 2LD policy and various other policies could be slightly modified to accommodate a bilingual
5. The community of interest would know they could use either

Nāku noa, nā

Karaitiana Taiuru

Chairman – New Zealand Maori Internet Society

The Reply

The reply from the governing bodies was that they were not obliged to recognise the treaty of Waitangi as they were not a government department and that there was a formal process for the creation of new 2nd Level Domain Names.

This highlighted one of many Indigenous/Māori issues when dealing with a private organisation who did not respect or understand New Zealand society and was not representative of its stakeholders.

 

Statistics

Research has not been completed to ascertain statistics or how the second official language of New Zealand is used within domain names by individuals, companies nor government and educational facilities that have an obligation to use Māori names in the offline world.

Research into the usage of te reo Māori in web page content has been completed by academic Keegan,T. (1998, 1999, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2004) .

This is the last frontier of te reo Māori to be explored and it has a major impact on all Internet users who are Māori and on the usage of te reo Māori.

It is important that research and analysis is completed into te reo Māori in Internet domain names as these names are the cyber equivalent of geographical place names, physical street names and Christian/Personal names of human beings.

All statistics were based on assistance from the Domain Name Commissioner (DNC) performing queries on the .nz Domain Name System on July 31, 2013. Attempts were made to gain access to the second level part of the DNS but was denied. The alternative method was that the DNC performed the queries as a workaround to the policy.

.nz authorised Registrars who offer IDN registrations

Three authorised .nz Registrars offer IDN registrations in .nz[1]. Of the three Registrars two are boutique New Zealand companies while the third is an international company who is likely to have had IDN capabilities for other TLD’s and GTLD’s without considering the business case for IDN sales of .nz .

The low number of registrars has been attributed to the Return on Investment (ROI) to implement the technical capability to register an IDN.

It has been widely agreed that if there were a need for IDN registrations of the more popular languages such as Mandarin, Hebrew, Indian etc. that it is likely that all registrars would have IDN capability.

.nz authorised Registrars who offer .maori.nz

There are 72 .nz authorised registrars. 50 are New Zealand businesses. Of the 50 New Zealand businesses, 23 did not offer public domain name registrations. There are a number of reasons for this including marketing and Internet companies with large corporate customers who are likely to have an account manager register domains for their customers.

Of the remaining 27 .nz registrars there are 5 .nz registrars who do not sell .maori.nz.

New Zealand’s largest and most experienced domain name registrar (Domainz web reference in AP format) will not recognise a search for a .maori.nz domain. An error message is displayed stating that the domain name is invalid. Domainz is one of four companies who have 45.6% of the .nz domain names market share in July 2013 (DNC .nz Market Share – July 2013 web reference)

At the time of the introduction of .maori.nz, Domainz had the monopoly in the Domain Name market since nz was made public. Once the monopoly was removed in 2002, there was a manual process to change registrars. Domainz would have remained the largest domain registrar which in March 2003 the top 4 registrars had 83.8% of the market (DNC .nz Market Share – March 2003 web reference)

Of the 7 .nz registrars in Australia, only one offers .maori.nz. The other 6 registrars offer a selection of .nz options with .co.nz being the common one amongst all Australian registries.

The remaining 14 registrars are located in various countries in the world and only one registrar offers .maori.nz

To register a .maori.nz domain name, a registrant has a choice of 24 of 72 .nz authorised registrars and the risk of not knowing that .maori.nz is an option.

Rankings

The majority of authorised .nz registrars who sell .maori.nz and who list .nz names together, place .maori.nz 7th in the list which until the introduction of .kiwi.nz on September 11 2012,

.maori.nz was the 7th most popular .nz domain.

Pricing

There are no price differences for a .maori.nz and any other .nz domain name. But the prices vary significantly between the registrars with one selling .nz domains for as low as $1 and another for $75 per annum.

IDN registrations by domain

120 .nz domain names out of 530, 927 .nz domain names were registered with a Māori macron.

 

2LD	IDN registrations
.co.nz	75
.net.nz	14
.org.nz	13
.gen.nz	7
.geek.nz	4
.ac.nz	2
.maori.nz/.māori.nz	2
.iwi.nz	2
.govt.nz	1
cri.nz	0
.health	0
.iwi.nz	0
.kiwi.nz	0
.mil.nz	0
.parliament.nz	0
.school.nz	0

Registered Iwi names outside of .iwi.nz

Iwi have registered 214 domain names in a multitude of domain extensions in .nz and in various other CCTLD’s and GTLD’s. .iwi.nz is still the most preferred domain name for Iwi followed by .co.nz and .maori.nz. See below for the figures.

 

.iwi.nz	81
.co.nz	50

.maori.nz	38
.com	26
.org.nz	15
.net	2
.net.nz	1
.org	1

Iwi perceptions of .iwi.nz are Survey results

There were 81 .iwi.nz registrations with 70 web sites that vary from basic information to complex membership systems. 6 of those iwi also chose to use a .maori.nz site that is redirected to their .iwi.nz web site, for branding reasons while 8 Iwi use .iwi.nz to redirect to another web site domain which is their primary address. The reason for this is the other names were registered prior to .iwi.nz criteria being made more open to all Iwi.

The 16 .iwi.nz registrants with no web site.

131 Iwi have chosen to register outside of .iwi.nz

7 Iwi names are cyber squatted and are of no concern to the Iwi involved as they have secured their branding in .iwi.nz .

3:D’s that contain the word “aotearoa”

196 domain names from a total of 530, 927 .nz domain names contain the string “Aotearoa”

315 companies contain the word Aotearoa in the company’s registry office database. 75 organisations in the Societies Database.

 

2LD	number of occurrences of the string “Aotearoa”
.co.nz	139
.org.nz	37
.net.nz	9
.maori.nz/.māori.nz	7

.ac.nz	3
.gen.nz	1
.kiwi.nz	1
.school.nz	1
. cri.nz	0
.gen.nz	0
.govt.nz	0
.health	0
.kiwi.nz	1
.mil.nz	0
.parliament.nz	0
.school.nz	0

3LDs that contain the word maaori

0 Second Level Domain names contain the string “maaori”.

0 registered companies are recorded in the company’s office database as containing the word Maaori.

3LDs that contain the word maori

297 .nz domain names from a total of 530, 927 .nz domain names contain the string “maori”.

95 registered companies are recorded in the company’s office database as containing the word Maori.

 

2LD	Number of occurrences
.co.nz	221
.org.nz	27
.maori.nz/.māori.nz	14
.net.nz	12
.kiwi.nz	7

.ac.nz	8
.govt.nz	5
.school.nz	4
.geek.nz	1
. cri.nz	0
.kiwi.nz	8
.mil.nz	0
.net.nz	0
.org.nz	0
.parliament.nz	0

Māori Language usage by “Māori Medium schools

A Māori Medium school is a school in which all Students are involved in Māori Medium Education.

There are 104 schools in this category. 51 schools using .school.nz.

• use .ac.nz
• have no web

21 schools use a 4^th Level Domain subdomain with www.school.nz/

14 schools use a 4^th Level Domain subdomain with www.schoozone.net.nz/ 1 School uses a Facebook Page

1 School uses .org.nz 1 School uses .com

Māori Language usage by Mixed Māori language schools

Mixed Māori language in education is a school of which all students are either involved in Māori medium education or Māori language in English medium education.

There are 77 Schools in the category.

60 school use .school.nz 3 school use .ac.nz

1 school uses .co.nz 1 school uses .com

1 school does not have a web site 1 school uses .org.nz

7 schools use a 4^th Level Domain subdomain with www.schoozone.net.nz/ 2 school use a 4^th Level Domain subdomain with www.school.nz/

1 school use a 4^th Level Domain subdomain with www.schoolground.co.nz/

Māori Language usage by School with Māori medium education

School with Māori medium education is a school of which some students do Māori medium education and the rest do no Māori language in education

There are 39 Schools in the category. 35 school use .school.nz

1 school uses .ac.nz 1 school uses .co.nz 1 school uses .org.nz

1 school use a 4^th Level Domain subdomain with www.school.nz/

Māori language usage per 2ld

Three domains, .cri, .mil and .parliament have no Māori words. .cri has a Māori word but is not intended to be a Māori word as it is the abbreviation of an Institute who also has a Māori name.

 

2LD	Registrations
.ac.nz	103
.co.nz	2745
.cri.nz	0
.geek.nz	42

.gen.nz	66
.govt.nz	44
.health.nz	1
.iwi.nz	64
.kiwi.nz	228
.maori.nz	280
.mil.nz	0
.net.nz	450
.org.nz	665
.parliament.nz	0
.school.nz	674

Total: 5318 registered Māori words in .nz

Alternative Domain Options

Dissatisfied with the .nz options, there have always been other options for domain names including looking at other countries domain names and seeking a co-operative relationship, or if the domain name is open to any registrations, then simply registering in that domain, though this is not ideal for marketing and security reasons. Today we would also argue that it is against data sovereignty.

The best option for Māori out of all of the Country Code Top Level Domain Names (CCTLD) was the .ao domain name from Angolia. There was discussion about contacting the Angolia government about a partnership but his never occurred due to a number of reasons including time, developments in the world of domain names and the hope that .nz would consider Māori.

There was also a discussion and then implementation of an alternative Domain Name System designed by a member of the New Zealand Māori Internet Society for use by Māori. The system essentially piggy backed on the current Internet and used a custom Domain Name System that Māori could have designed to be fully equal to a bilingual version of the current .nz domain name system. It was decided the technical implementation and various other risks and hassle would be too great for the majority of users. Interestingly the world now has the so called “Dark Net” which is very popular alt dns.

Discussion also happened around registering a legit domain name and then either:

• Creating sub domains to reflect Māori society such as iwi, marae etc. that would create a whole new Māori Domain Name System
• Use a domain name that could be used as a URL shortener service that produces Māori Language specific domain

The list below is a list of the obvious domain names that are Māori language and society friendly.

.ai , .ae ,.ai , .am , .ao , .au , .co , .fm , .ie , .io , .ke , .ki , .ma , .me , .mo , .mu , .na , .ng , .ne ,

.pa , .re , .ro , .ru , .ru , .to , .tv, .mobi, .tv and .biz .

Dot Kiwi

.kiwi is the world’s first GTLD (domain name) to consider Indigenous protection mechanisms and requirements by consulting with Māori prior to and after implementation. .kiwi also offered the bilingual .nz equivalent that was declined by .nz .kiwi was released in March 2014.

Strictly not an Indigenous Domain Name but it does use a Māori word “kiwi” which is a common term to describe New Zealanders. The application for .kiwi and their definition can be read at Section 18 a.

The then CEO Tim Johnson (now Director) and I had several discussions about the raft of issues Māori had in the .nz domain. Dot Kiwi offered a number of protection mechanisms and promotion for Māori prior to release of .kiwi

The criteria I suggested to.kiwi that was agreed to and implemented, that would offer maximum protection and promotion of Māori were:

1. Protection of Māori god names
2. Protection of all Iwi names
3. Protection of the Māori .KIWI equivalents of some current .NZ (e.g., mahi.kiwi)
4. Immediate support for macronised .KIWI domain names

I provided .kiwi with the list of Iwi and god names and equivalent translations of various .nz suffixes.

In a public statement .kiwi further showed their support for Māori with the following and to the media here.

We believe that these protective measures represent the first occasion of a gTLD registry recognising the value and significance of culturally sensitive strings. Additionally, a .KIWI domain name will be available with macronised vowels from day one, further improving the user experience of the only TLD capable of 100% Māori language domains.

We’re really excited about the opportunities made possible through the introduction of .KIWI domains, and believe we are only scratching the surface. Our next challenge is how we can innovate this space even more, and further promote the Māori language within domain names. This is unchartered territory within the gTLD space and we will be looking to NZMIS for assistance as we move forward . We would be particularly interested and welcoming to ideas from members of NZMIS.

Proposed bilingual names

mahi.kiwi         .co.nz

ipu.kiwi           .net.nz

ropu.kiwi        .org.nz

rōpū.kiwi        .org.nz

kura.kiwi .school.nz wananga.kiwi .ac.nz wānaga.kiwi .ac.nz maori. .gen.nz

māori. .gen.nz

iwi.      iwi.nz

Dot Maori Feasibility Overview

A report into the feasibility of a new equivalent .com domain name dot maori (.maori) giving Māori more representation and protection that is currently afforded with .nz

ICANN the worlds governing body of Internet Names and Numbers recently announced that anyone could apply for the creation of a new Internet address suffix to add to the current extensions such as .com, .org. , .net etc[1]. Technically this is called a GTLD – General Top Level Domain or a string. There are currently 22 GTLD’s and 280 Country Code Top Level Domains including .nz .

The introduction of the new strings will see the internet flooded with new strings. In the first round there could possibly be another 1,930 strings to consider using when registering a domain name.

.maori is a possible suffix that is being discussed by groups of Māori and non-Māori.

This paper explores the facts that .maori is both myopic and an unsustainable investment that will add no further benefits to online Māori. In fact .maori could in fact create more issues for Māori on the web.

I discuss the costs, procedures and the currently vast amount of space on the Internet for Māori that is either underutilised or not utilised at all. I raise the issue that it will take at least two separate, but more likely three separate applications to have a

safe .maori environment. Then I discuss the fact that there are alternatives to creating a new .maori domain name including partnerships with other Indigenous Peoples.

Finally, I recommend that if an organisation has money to invest in a new Internet sting, then some consideration could be given to .Aotearoa or similar that is truly representative of a bi- cultural New Zealand/Aotearoa, then I argue against this application.

Background

New web addresses or strings are coming to the web and there is no stopping them[2]. In the first round over 1,930 applications were received for new strings[3]. The majority of applications are from conglomerates and large organisations with seamlessly endless disposable income to protect their brands such as Coke, Pepsi, Amazon etc. The end consumer- the web site owner will soon be rich in choice as to which domain they will use for their web site.

The first round of applicants will set the standards and will have the financial/legal/human resources to not worry too much about extra costs and issues that may arise. The second round will likely be those organisations with large amounts of resources but who are cautious and who can wait to see what issues may arise from the first round of applications.

The third round will likely consist of applicants who cannot afford to make a mistake and to have their application declined. If you are declined, you don’t get all of your money back. It is in this third round I believe we will see more culture strings and new issues of ownership and rights to access such strings.

The idea of a .pacific string was discussed by the Pacific Islands Internet Society (PICISOC) and decided against as there would not be enough interest and the costs were too high[4].

The Pacific Islands population is about 10 million and has a number of islands with communities and businesses that would benefit a .pacific string. This in comparison to the whole population of New Zealand which is less than 4.5 million, with the population of Maori being 673,00[5]. No up-to-date statistics exist for Māori access to the Internet, but it is likely Māori will still be lower users to the Internet via a computer and higher users of mobile access.

InternetNZ held a consultation period of its members to discuss .kiwi string[6]. After a great deal of resources and effort it was deemed not to be feasible.

Application for .maori

A hopeful applicant will firstly need to study the 338 pages of the application book to decide if they are eligible to apply for the new gtld[7].

Each application has an application fee of US$185,000 of which a non-refundable US$5,000 must be paid upon application and is not refundable if your application is declined. If you change your mind or your business changes, the refunds available vary from nothing to 80% of the application fee.

In addition to the application fee, there are other associated costs that are expected to be at least US$250,000 per annum.[8]

Applicants could partner with an organisation who is able to satisfy ICANN’s financial requests, but this would create new issues and dilute the profit margins even further. It would also create a new issue of not having complete sovereignty of your own Indigenous space or at the very least you would have to create a comprehensive business plan showing how you would make a profit for that partner to come on board.

For .maori to be of any use to Māori, at least one extra application .māori (note the macron) would also need to be applied for. This would achieve three things.

1. Duplicate the fact that .maori.nz is also available as .māori.nz
2. Would satisfy the orthographic conventions as set out by the Māori Language Commission and is almost the standard way of writing in Māori.
3. It is common to see both versions of the word with and with out the

As macron technology is still relevantly new and for many years Māori used the German umlaut (two dots) a third application for .mäori may be necessary to counter cyber- squatting issues and security. For people who still use outdated macron technology, their computers place a third dot in the umlaut making it impossible to see the umlaut. Hence, in the very least, a study into the word mäori would be required to ensure that it is not a common word in another language that is likely to be registered as a new string.

If this preventative step is not taken, it would be an easy task for a dubious organisation to simply register .mäori and bring .maori into disrepute, thus making it an unsafe domain to register and to be seen in with other strings such as .tk.[9]

There is the fourth option which could be considered and that is the fact that is acceptable to use a double vowel in place of a macron i.e., Maaori.

Assuming the application only used the two common spellings of the word Maori, the application would equate to two sums of US$185,000 which equals US$370,000 for only the application fee. This does not include the annual costs as discussed earlier.

Anyone with a genuine interest in Māori development and success rates could use the estimated US$1,000,000 to give every child in New Zealand/Aotearoa a laptop and training or other large scale social initiatives to assist the wider population of Māori. The return on investment would be much greater in terms of social responsibility and financial returns.

Who has the right to .maori

.maori if applied for would likely be disputed by the community on many grounds including who owns the right to .maori ? Is it Iwi, The Māori Council, Waitangi Tribunal or the individual or a myriad of other people and organisations? Or is .maori simply a term and a string that cannot be owned by any one person or organisation; Māori or non-Māori.

Once ownership of the string .maori was settled, there would be new issues of who should profit from the string? Is it all Māori or the commercial entity who is profiteering off every person in the world who calls themselves Māori?

We have already seen one cultural string .scot for Scottish People enduring ownership disputes with the Scottish government recently giving permission to one organisation to apply for the string.[10]

.aotearoa

.maori is very restrictive in what it represents, while Aotearoa is a more general word that reflects a bi-cultural country and a name that most New Zealanders are familiar with and associate with.

Using the name would also open up a larger market of potential customers. The issue is that Aotearoa is an alternative name for New Zealand. Such a name is likely to not be allowed without the permission of the New Zealand Government.[11] Again, this would raise issues around the right of ownership of a Māori word.

The alternative would be to look at using the abbreviated version .ao and negotiate with Angola for such rights[12].

Conclusion

An application for .maori would not be beneficial to Māori, to New Zealand or to the Internet. There is a myriad of potential issues including allocation of funds to such a project and the fact that Māori have good representation on the Internet both internationally and locally.

There are many other more effective options that can be explored if the real need arises for greater space on the web.

• http://www.icann.org/
• http://newgtlds.icann.org
• http://newgtlds.icann.org/en/program-status/application-results/strings-1200utc- 13jun12-en
• picisoc.org/
• http://www.stats.govt.nz/browse_for_stats/population/estimates_and_projections/mao

ri-population-estimates.aspx [6] http://internetnz.net.nz

• http://newgtlds.icann.org/en/applicants/agb
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1lY3hUNcgg
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.tk
• http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/03/26/gov_gives_nod_to_scotland_domain_name

/

• http://archive.icann.org/en/topics/new-gtlds/gac-board-geographic-names-21feb11- pdf
• https://www.reg.it.ao/

 

New Zealand Government Usage

The New Zealand Government has no set policy for Māori language and treaty of Waitangi obligations in its 5 moderation policies which cover more than 1100 domain names. There is also little usage of te reo Māori in domain names.

The New Zealand government manage 5 of the 6 moderated domain names in .nz space, with the remaining moderated domain being .iwi.nz .The moderated domains are:

.govt.nz moderated by Government Information Services, Department of Internal Affairs.

.health.nz moderated by Ministry of Health

.mil.nz moderated by New Zealand Defence Force

.cri.nz moderated by Science New Zealand

.parliament.nz moderated by Parliamentary Service

The New Zealand Government has honored its Treaty of Waitangi obligations by creating bilingual names for over 200 of its entities of which a number have te reo Māori strategies and firm Treaty of Waitangi strategies. Yet in the online world where the majority of New Zealanders connect to and use the Internet as a part of everyday life (Internet Service Provider Survey: 2012 Statistics New Zealand), the commitments and considerations are different.

None of the government managed domain name policies consider or recognise te reo Māori, the treaty of Waitangi or the fact that most, if not all government departments have a bilingual name as do the majority of state-owned enterprises and health organisations. I am assured by the govt.nz moderator (2013) that while this is true, no application will be declined for the usage of te reo Māori.

In my research of New Zealand Government Response to Te Reo Māori Email Addresses, I found that the majority of govt.nz web sites would not allow a macron in an address to be used in online contact forms or by emailing the government entity directly using the published contact email.

It is common for government entities to use a range of .nz domains and in several cases a GTLD (General Top Level Domain). WINZ has the most domains registered but do not use

.maori.nz, even not renewing winz.maori.nz when it was returned to it.

There is a clear lack of usage of the .maori.nz domain with only two government entities using .maori.nz and a clear lack of any te reo Māori in domain names.

The Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Culture and Heritage and Learning Media are the exceptions as described below.

Ministry of Justice

• co.nz
• org.nz
• govt.nz
• co.nz
• govt.nz
• net.nz
• org.nz
• govt.nz
• waitangi-tribunal.govt.nz

Kaupapature web sites are the Māori language version of “the constitution” web site. The 3rd Level has been translated but no usage of the 2LD has been implemented.

Ministry of Heritage

Use a bilingual name for both its corporate web site by using manatutaonga.govt.nz and its IDN variant manatūtaonga.govt.nz which take a user to the te reo Māori version on their web site.

The Ministry also uses the .maori.nz extension for the bilingual title of another of their web sites teopetaua28.maori.nz for the 28maoribattalion.org.nz web site. Though the Ministry proudly claim they use Māori keyboard and have correctly used the IDN variant in .govt.nz, the .māori.nz is not configured and arrives at the Registrars parked page.

Learning Media

A state-owned enterprise utilised their Māori bilingual name in a .co.nz 2LD that redirected to their main site.

WINZ

WINZ has been the victim of two cyber hijackings with winz.maori.nz. On the first occasion (YEAR) the domain was promptly returned to WINZ and was covered in the media at the time and again in 2013 winz.maori.nz has been hijacked and used for derogatory purposes.

WINZ has 148 domain names registered in multiple domain names. It appears as though the registrations are to protect the brand, but none in .maori.nz domain.