Dr. Kevin Shedlock is a lecturer at the School of Engineering and Computer Science at the Victoria University of Wellington – Te Herenga Waka, and a researcher studying virtual world computing using open-source and proprietary based computer programming languages.

Dr. Shedlock’s research is focused on the construction of technology-focused artifacts, such as virtual reality (VR) and related immersive visualizations, using an Indigenous framework. As a result of his research, Māori and Pacific Indigenous groups are beginning to access new methods when constructing real-world IT projects during the framing, engagement, planning, construction, and evaluation phases of the Indigenous-focused technology artifacts.

Dr. Shedlock is a member of the New Zealand Institute for IT Professionals (NZIITP) and also involved in virtual world projects for tourism; native plant species and indigenous heritage sites facilitating collaborative research approaches towards virtual world computing.

Peter-Lucas Jones (Te Aupōuri, Ngāi Takoto, Ngāti Kahu) is the CEO of Te Hiku Media and an experienced governor in the Māori media ecosystem. He is currently the Chair of Te Whakaruruhau o ngā Reo Irirangi Māori, Deputy Chair of Whakaata Māori and Chairman of Te Rūnanga Nui o Te Aupōuri. As a trusted kaitiaki (guardian) of Māori data, Peter-Lucas negotiates the responsibility of protecting iwi (tribal) and Māori data while meeting the needs of funders and the expectations of iwi and hapū (sub-tribes). Peter-Lucas has terrestrial and digital broadcasting experience working with kaumātua (elders) and marae (sacred Māori meeting place) to record content and provide access to te reo ā-iwi (tribal language variation), tikanga ā-iwi (tribal cultural variation), kōrero tuku iho (oral traditions) and iwi history. He is an award winning Māori language radio broadcaster with a focus on political affairs and topical issues. This experience has seen the development of a Kaitiakitanga License for Te Hiku Media that provides a framework to guide the use of Māori data from a haukāinga (home people of marae) perspective. This data is now used by Te Hiku Media to develop NLP and NLU tools for te reo Māori.

(Māori) is the General Manager of Te Hiku Media (THM), Aotearoa, where he guides Māori language broadcasting, digital Māori language corpus/data governance and innovation projects.

Ashley Cordes is an Assistant Professor of Indigenous Studies at the University of Oregon and citizen of the Coquille Nation. Her research lies at the intersection of Indigenous media, critical/cultural studies, environmental storytelling, and community-based projects. Her recent work in these areas has been published in journals such as Cultural Studies; Critical Methodologies, Journal of International and Intercultural Communication, and Feminist Media Studies.

Ashley Cordes brings her expertise in Indigenous digital media, alternative currencies including cryptocurrency, and computational support for Indigenous governance models.

Keolu Fox Ph.D., Kānaka Maoli (Native Hawaiian) is an assistant professor at University of California, San Diego, affiliated with the Department of Anthropology, the Global Health Program, the Halıcıoğlu Data Science Institute, the Climate Action Lab, and the Indigenous Futures Lab. He holds a Ph.D. in Genome Sciences from the University of Washington, Seattle (2016). Dr. Fox’s multi-disciplinary research interests include genome sequencing, genome engineering, computational biology, evolutionary genetics, paleogenetics, and Indigenizing biomedical research. His primary research focuses on questions of functionalizing genomics, testing theories of natural selection by editing genes and determining the functions of mutations.

Dr. Fox has published numerous articles on human genetics, biomedicine, ancient genomics, and Indigenous data sovereignty, most recently in the New England Journal of Medicine, Nature, and the Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

Dr. Fox is a recipient of grants from numerous organizations including the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, National Geographic, the American Association for Physical Anthropology, Emerson Collective, the Social Science Research Council and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, SOLVE Initiative.

Fox (Kanaka Maoli) is Asst. Prof. at UC San Diego researching genome sequencing, genome engineering, computational biology, evolutionary genetics, and paleogenetics. Fox and Tsosie will contribute their expertise in establishing the IndigiData Indigenous data science workshops.

Ceyda Yolgormez is a Postdoc at the Indigenous Futures Research Cluster, working in the Abundant Intelligences Research Program. Her PhD work brought together social theory and interactive technologies, such as large machine learning models or social robots, to consider how our conceptions of the social are changing. Her PhD dissertation proposes a framework for a sociology of machines that reimagines human-machine relations. Her research looks at playful and creative engagements with machines as a site to explore and experiment with human machine socialities, and is interested in methodologies that reveal and trouble the common-sensical way in which we understand such relations.