Waiho i te toipoto, kaua i te toiroa

'Let us keep close together, not wide apart.'

Mātou Collective has grown from the fertile ground of emerging technology. Ideas that have not been possible before have been combined with the imagination, professional skills and lived experience of a passionate team, and our connections with and work done alongside whānau, Hapu, Iwi, Maori Incorporations, Trusts, Māori Kaupapa SMEs, with Indigenous cousins globally, and leading Māori sociotechnical, system researchers and engineers here in Aotearoa.

Experienced whānau, including Robert O’Brien, founder of yūmi.ai, Maui Hudson, founder of Te Kotahi, Maori Research Centre and members of Waikato University's Computer Science School have made significant contributions. Globally, thought leaders like Pia Andrews, Chief Digital Officer for the Australian Federal Government and Audrey Tang, the Digital Minister of Taiwan, have been instrumental in inspiring and guiding Mātou Collective's work, as have new whānau worldwide who are participating alongside us in the Cardano development community.

It has taken shape through working closely on a project which, at the end of 2023, brought to life an early prototype of identity services, decentralised identifiers (DIDs) and verifiable credentials (VCs) for hapori Māori. Work which was significantly shaped by engagement with whānau and hapu in Tai Tokerau, the northern region of Aotearoa.

With the first release of a pilot of this new service, the need for a new paradigm to hold this infrastructure and support all those contributing to it was revealed. A paradigm that recognises, engages and rewards all involved in its ongoing development. Another opportunity for innovation—using the technology being developed—to hold all that contribute close together.

Establishing a legal entity with decentralised governance is a priority now and the immediate focus for the Collective. This entails securing additional funding, collaborating with whānau, Hapū, Iwi, and Māori SMEs across the motu, researchers from various fields, ensuring interoperability, and fostering partnerships to maximize the benefits of a shared infrastructure for Māori.

Collaboration is fundamental to creating a common digital infrastructure. What has emerged as part of our mission is to ensure that its value will be distributed among all those involved in its creation, use, maintenance, and advancement, operating on a sharing economy model.