2/5/26 The Digital Pacific and Community Engagement Notes

Origins of Tanatomana Trust and Pacific STEAM

  • Tanatomana Trust co-founded in 20202020 in Otautahi Christchurch by Nina O'Gourd Humphries and Janai.
  • The organisation focuses on growing Pacific futures in STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics) through Pacific language, arts, and culture.
  • Motivation stemmed from the difficulty of managing genealogy within oral traditions and the lack of strategic Pacific engagement within large institutions like libraries and councils, where Nina O'Gourd Humphries was the only staff member out of 3,7003,700 with "Pacific" in her job title.

Defining the Digital Pacific and Values

  • Concept: Pacific values such as collectivism, respect, and reciprocity shaping technology.
  • "Digital va": Indigenizing the digital environment to embed cultural ways of being and knowing while ensuring cultural integrity is not diluted.
  • Reciprocity examples: Cookie Learning teaching language on TikTok and the rise of online kava groups and church services during COVID.
  • Commerce: Wine Fresh serves as an art-driven business amplifying Pacific artists online.

Advocacy, Education, and Digital Literacy

  • Fibre Fare: Advocates for AI literacy, education, and governance to move the community toward technology leadership rather than consumption.
  • Pacific Learning Kids: A global digital storytelling platform for children under 1414 years old that uses animations to promote language retention.
  • MOE: Developing resources to utilize digital technologies to support Pacific learners in the education system.

Preservation and Future Technology

  • Minecraft World: A teaching resource for Minecraft education edition (accessible to 300,000,000300,000,000 people) featuring 1212 Pacific Worldviews based on pre-colonial and spiritual ideas.
  • EduX: A virtual reality and augmented reality platform built by students to share cultural stories.
  • Tuvalu preservation: Using virtual reality to capture the nation and culture as the islands face climate-driven disappearance.
  • digitalpacific.org: A centralized repository for digital art, archives, and manuscripts led by the National Library of New Zealand and Australia, active from 20202020 to 20252025.

The Digital Divide and Socioeconomic Barriers

  • Tech Representation: Only 4.4%4.4\% of Pacific people work in the technology sector.
  • Access Gaps: 25%25\% of Pacific people lack internet access, and 64%64\% do not have access to a digital device.
  • Economic Status: The average income for Pacific people in Aotearoa is $20,000\$20,000, making device acquisition difficult.
  • Action: Tanatomana Trust distributed 672672 laptops to the Christchurch area to address the device gap.

Questions & Discussion

  • Question: What are the challenges in connecting the Pacific diaspora?
  • Response: Beyond infrastructure, cost, and skills, the challenge involves social conditions where diasporic worldviews differ significantly from those in the islands.
  • Question: What were the difficulties in building the Minecraft project?
  • Response: It took 55 years due to the extensive care required in building trust, cross-referencing stories, and determining what knowledge was appropriate to share publicly.
  • Question: What is the next project for the trust?
  • Response: Building a STEAM school based on the principles of observe, preserve, and pass on.