# Māori computing technology use and design

> field of research

**Wikidata**: [Q110402695](https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q110402695)  
**Source**: https://4ort.xyz/entity/maori-computing-technology-use-and-design

## Summary
Māori computing technology use and design is an academic discipline that investigates how Māori communities create, adapt, and govern digital systems in ways that align with tikanga Māori (Māori customs and protocols). It sits at the intersection of computer science and Māori science, producing research outputs catalogued under the 2020 ANZSRC code 451203.

## Key Facts
- Classified as a subclass of both Māori science and computer science.
- Assigned the 2020 Australian and New Zealand Standard Research Classification (ANZSRC) FOR code 451203.
- Recognised in Wikidata as an instance of “academic discipline” with the description “field of research”.
- Parent discipline, computer science, is supported by 200 sitelinks across Wikimedia projects.
- No founding date, key researchers, or institutional homes are specified in the available metadata.

## FAQs
### Q: What exactly does “Māori computing technology use and design” study?
A: It studies how Māori people and organisations develop, select, and govern computing technologies so that the tools reinforce Māori knowledge systems, language revitalisation goals, and community data sovereignty.

### Q: Is this a stand-alone degree programme?
A: The metadata list it only as a “field of research”; no dedicated degree titles or course codes are provided, so it is most commonly encountered as a research theme within computer-science or Māori-studies departments.

### Q: How is it different from mainstream computer science?
A: While it shares computational methods, its explicit focus is on Māori world-views, ethical frameworks, and community benefit, positioning technology as a support for tino rangatiratanga (self-determination) rather than a neutral tool.

## Why It Matters
Digital infrastructures increasingly mediate education, health, and civic life in Aotearoa New Zealand. Without Māori-led design principles, these systems can accelerate language loss, marginalise Māori data, and breach tikanga around privacy and guardianship. The emergence of Māori computing technology use and design as a recognised research field signals a shift: instead of being passive consumers, Māori communities are interrogating source code, algorithms, and platform governance to ensure technologies serve whānau (family), hapū (sub-tribe), and iwi (tribe) aspirations. By codifying this work under its own ANZSRC identifier, funding agencies and institutions can track Māori research outputs, justify targeted grants, and cultivate Māori tech talent. The field therefore plays a critical role in redressing historical technology harms, advancing Māori data sovereignty, and demonstrating that Indigenous values can shape—rather than be shaped by—digital futures.

## Notable For
- One of the few research fields globally that merges an Indigenous knowledge paradigm (Māori science) with the traditionally Western domain of computer science.
- Carries its own ANZSRC FOR code (451203), giving it visibility in national research-information systems.
- Explicitly centres kaupapa Māori methodologies inside technical design cycles.
- Sits within a parent discipline (computer science) that already enjoys broad Wikimedia coverage (200 sitelinks), providing a ready platform for knowledge dissemination.
- No rival classification exists for other Indigenous computing intersections in the ANZSRC schema, making it a unique reference point.

## Body
### Academic positioning
Māori computing technology use and design is catalogued in the 2020 Australian and New Zealand Standard Research Classification as field 451203. This places it under the major group 45 “Information and Computing Sciences” and the narrow group 4512 “Computer Science”. The discipline is simultaneously tagged as a subclass of Māori science, signalling its inter-disciplinary obligation to uphold Māori epistemologies.

### Metadata footprint
Within Wikidata the topic is described simply as “field of research” and instantiated as an academic discipline. Its parent topic, computer science, is one of the most inter-linked subjects on Wikidata with 200 sitelinks, offering a large semantic neighbourhood through which related Māori computing concepts can be discovered. No time-qualified statements (start dates, publication counts, citation metrics) are supplied, indicating that quantitative benchmarking is still nascent.

### Research scope (inferred)
Because no explicit scope note is provided, the dual parentage implies research questions that range from low-level systems design (e.g., Māori keyboard layouts, Unicode encoding for macrons) to higher-level concerns such as algorithmic bias against Māori language data, governance of iwi data in cloud infrastructures, and Kaupapa Māori evaluation of AI decision-support tools.