Papa Reo (
papareo.nz) is a multilingual language platform grounded in Indigenous knowledge and ways of thinking and powered by cutting edge data science. We will present on the Papa Reo project highlighting the importance of sovereignty over data, platforms, and technologies. We will also cover our latest tools such as a real time, on device te reo Māori pronunciaiton App which aims to decolonise the sound of te reo Māori. Papa Reo is led by Te Reo Irirangi o Te Hiku o Te Ika (Te Hiku Media), a charitable media organisation, collectively belonging to the Far North iwi of Ngāti Kuri, Te Aupouri, Ngai Takoto, Te Rārawa and Ngāti Kahu. Te Hiku Media is an iwi communications hub for iwi radio, online TV and media services. Māori language revitalisation is a core focus of Te Hiku Media, and the organizations’ vision and mission was confirmed by a meeting of kaumātua and kuia (elders), and other native speakers of Te Reo Māori at Mahimaru Marae.
Notes from Presentation & Chat:
- If you're looking to contact Keoni or Peter, you can track them down through https://papareo.nz
- For an article about their work, you can see https://www.wired.co.uk/article/maori-language-tech
- From Keoni about building a team: "A clever programmer is sometimes enough to use an open source project like DeepSpeech. The hard part is getting the data, that’s where the cultural knowledge is critical."