Incorporating Indigenous World Views in Community Informatics

This paper aims to provoke further theorising and action by the Community Informatics community about working with Indigenous communities. In particular, we present research undertaken with the Indigenous Maori and Pakeha (European) community in Aotearoa/New Zealand as a case study to learn from. Maori are of interest because of their engagement with, and speaking out, about ICTs. We suggest that particular attention needs to be paid from an ethical perspective in working with diversity in order that research and action are undertaken that benefits both the researcher and participant community. Community Informatics would benefit from more attention to articulating its assumptions about the nature of research and action with cultural diversity in its role as a bridge between diverse communities and the design and implementation of Information and Communication Technologies.