Empowering our communities through ai

Hiringa te Mahara is an Indigenous research collective located all around in Aotearoa, NZ. We're actively working with Māori to reimagine ai in Te Ao Māori.

About us

Hiringa te Mahara is a living kaupapa that celebrates the richness of Indigenous ways of knowing, being, and creating. Forming part of a large international Canadian-funded partnership called ‘Abundant Intelligences’, Hiringa te Mahara centres mātauranga Māori and other Indigenous worldviews to reframe artificial intelligence as something relational, regenerative, and rooted in place.

Our name, Hiringa te Mahara, reflects the breath of thought, the spark of memory, and the movement of inspiration. Through storytelling, design, research, language, and art, we aim to ignite deeper connections with ourselves, each other, and the natural world.

We believe that intelligence is not fixed or singular. It is abundant — expressed through whakapapa, waiata, observation, intuition, invention, ritual, and resistance. Our mahi nurtures these multiple intelligences, especially those often overlooked by colonial frameworks.

Our Media

Follow our kōrero series where we discuss the future of ai in Aotearoa.

Knowledge

Exploring traditional knowledge systems and their connection to AI.

Collaboration

Listen to key conversations that supports community voice in all that we do.

Partnerships

Building long-term relationships with community in search of abundance.

Our Focus

As a collective, we actively engage with communities to identify opportunities, that empower Indigenous communities to lead.

Building Collaborations and Partnerships

Hiringa te Mahara aims to build on the Abundant Intelligences collaboration and partnership to conceptualise, design, develop, and deploy Artificial Intelligence grounded upon Indigenous knowledge systems and practices.

These Indigenous partnerships consider respectful engagement and community leadership. Success involves valuing traditional knowledge, building trust, and ensuring fair participation in decisions.

Indigenous Knowledge
and Tribal Systems

Indigenous knowledge encompasses traditional wisdom practices passed through generations. Tribal systems organize communities through cultural protocols that guide practice, relationships, and connection to land.

Creating an abundant ai
future

Providing equitable access, tribal-centered design, and responsible innovation that benefits all communities in a manner that is safe, culturally appropriate, sustainable, respectful, and collaborative.

Our Funders

Hiringa te Mahara program draws upon research supported by the Government of Canada’s New Frontiers in Research Fund (NFRF), the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, and a MBIE Catalyst (Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment, Aotearoa New Zealand).