Description:

School of Education and Social Policy

Learning Sciences Brown Bag Speaker Series:

Indigenous Lead AI Technologies for Language Revitalization

Keoni Mahelona, Chief Technology Officer at Te Hiku Media

Lunch will be served!

Abstract: Te Reo Irirangi o Te Hiku o Te Ika (Te Hiku Media) built automatic speechrecognition (ASR) for te reo Māori, the indigenous language of AotearoaNew Zealand, because they needed it to transcribe hundreds of hours ofnative speaker audio archives. As a result of building this technology withand for the communities they serve, they ended up creating invaluableresources for educators, language learners, and the community at large.Te Hiku Media have demonstrated the compounding impact of communitylead research and development from employing more Māori and Pacificpeoples in tech to opening new opportunities for community lead research.In this talk, we'll share the stories and technologies that came out of ourwork over the past decade in the hope that it will inspire othercommunities.

Speaker Biography: Keoni (kanaka maoli) is the CTO at Te Hiku Media and a leadingpractitioner of indigenous data sovereignty. Originally from Anahola on theisland of Kauaʻi, Hawaiʻi, Keoni has been living and working in Te Hiku oTe Ika for over 10 years having first arrived in Aotearoa as a FulbrightScholar. As a driving force behind the development of digital innovationprojects that seek to secure the future of te reo Māori and otherindigenous languages, Keoni makes decisions every day to protect thesovereignty of Māori data and technologies.

Zoom Link below: 

https://northwestern.zoom.us/j/98996449816