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.maori.nz
The worlds first indegenious global 2nd Level Domain .maori.nz History - Original .maori.nz Proposal .iwi.nz - .iwi.nz – New Zealand’s first Indigenous Domain Name
.maori.nz In 1997 a public submission was made available by InternetNZ (previously knows as ISOCNZ) for any interested parties to submit feedback about new Second Level Domains.A number of submissions were sent to InternetNZ in support of a new Māori domain “.maori.nz” . The submissions were late and totalled 8 out of 31. One of the reasons for the submission was that the Kohanga Reo (a national Māori pre school organisation with over 700 individual pre schools) was not able to apply for .ac.nz (Educational Organisations) nor was it eligible for .school.nz (Schools) and upon applying for .ac.nz was told by it’s then moderator to apply for a .org.nz (Organisations) domain name. The second reason for the .maori.nz submission was that there was and still is a high amount of non Māori registering Māori names with the intent of selling them back to Māori at inflated prices. (http://maori2000.com/hiringa2/history.php for more details of the original submissions). Disillusioned by the above circumstances and the avalanche of “Anti Māori” emails from the public and members of InternetNZ (Quote from Ross Himona), Ross Himona established the first ever Māori organisation to support Māori on the Internet. New Zealand Māori Internet Society (NZMIS) begun its humble beginnings with a handful of members, no web site and only one goal “to have .maori.nz created”. NZMIS membership included Chairperson Karaitiana Taiuru (NZMIS Chairperson 1999-2002, 2006 to present), Te Rangikaiwhiria Kemara (Vice Chairperson and Webmaster 1999-2002, 2006 to present) and Bernadette Murray (Chairperson 1 year). Three years of consultation with Māori individuals and organisations, thousands of voluntary hours by its executive (1999-2002) and perpetual invitations to join NZMIS to support an application to InternetNZ and the generous koha to enable the submission for .maori.nz , the submission was made reality. The first submission: Regardless of the fact that this country's indigenous people and its second official language wanted to be represented on the Internet. InternetNZ advised NZMIS that the submission lacked sufficent content and it was agreed by both parties that the submission be returned to be revised with the assistance of InternetNZ. 10 months later the second submission for .maori.nz was accepted and passed the scrutiny of InternetNZ council members. A public vote concluded on March 12 2004, saw Māori as the first indigenous people in the world to have their own second level domain name. Vote Results: To date no other vote has seen such success. At the time of the vote NZMIS executive (1999-2002) had 1600 members and supporters as well as support from a few key media organisations. InternetNZ members at the time were only in the hundreds. The membership of NZMIS was reflective in the vote results. Shortly after the vote had occurred the NZMIS executive all resigned to allow new blood into the organisation but this saw the demise of the most powerful Māori lobby group on the Internet. .iwi.nz Since the inception of the Internet in New Zealand and its naming system (referred to as Second Level Domain 2LD .co.nz, .net.nz etc), Māori needs had been ignored. Although Māori Iwi were assigned 2LD .iwi.nz this was thought up by a non Māori person with no consultation with Māori. The criteria was so restrictive that only a handful of Iwi were eligible to apply for it. InternetNZ assigned its one of it’s members as the moderator as he had blood but knew very little about Iwi so relied on his Mother for advise. Eventually the moderation role was reluctantly accepted by the Ministry of Māori Development after InternetNZ (formerly ISOCNZ) was prepared to cancel the domain due to lack of a suitable moderator. After the formation of the New Zealand Māori Internet Society, TPK and ISOCNZ approached the Chairman Karaitiana Taiuru to become the new moderator of which he accepted. One of the first tasks was to remove the restrictive criteria so that all Iwi could apply for .iwi.nz . A public discussion period took place amongst NZMIS members. The public consultation saw major changes including the removal
of many of the restrictions put in place against traditional iwi.
THe official web site is now at http://www.register.iwi.nz
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