Services Mo Mātou Rātonga
The primary objectives of the Hei Whiringa Charitable Trust are to concentrate our services for the promotion of educational advancement, health, livelihood, and welfare of Māori and assist our people to become more independent and self-sustaining.
Our main focus will be on individuals, whānau, hapū, marae and iwi having the greatest social and economic need.
It is important to indicate that we believe that we have already entered a new era of rapid change, termed the “Fourth Industrial Revolution,” where new emerging technologies (e.g., Artificial Intelligence, Virtual Reality, distributed ledger technology and edge computing) will have a dramatic influence on ways in which the world works, communicates and creates value together via digital networks and team building. It will be an era where the velocity of change may leave many behind—where everything will become distributed and integrated ecosystems will become the new norm. In this context or environment, we strongly believe that innovative, integrated solutions for decentralised distribution and use of these technologies is a mandatory strategic priority.
The Trust founders desire that Māori communities and enterprise prepare to take their appropriate and rightful role during this era of change.
To do so, HWCT will assist māori to obtain education, training and new skills development in these emerging technologies and systems. As a direct result, we intend to concentrate our charitable services in the following areas:
- The creation of new, scalable sovereign, decentralised, technology-based platforms and ecosystems in cooperation with both HWCT’s well-established māori and global alliances with Indigenous community leaders in tandem with networking, open-source technology experts operating throughout the Pacific Rim.
- Low cost online programs to advance the public’s general knowledge, training and digital skills development in emerging technologies (e.g. AI, digital ecosystems, distributed ledger technology, edge-computing and open-source software and micro-services development).
- A mentorship program available to māori individuals, enterprises and communities on how to create customised, local community sustainable development utilising these new technologies. These programs will fundamentally be delivered through workshops and seminars taught by industry experts and volunteers.
- Leadership training and online workshops for rangatahi (youth) in such things as economics, entrepreneurship and financial management.
- HWCT also intends to act as a repository for the Intellectual Property co-created because of its Aotearoa and foreign-based technology partnerships. This service will be customised on a case-by-case basis and under joint agreements while also considering the advantages of New Zealand’s copyright and patent protection laws.