Workshops

Hua parakore is a kaupapa Māori (Indigenous) system and framework for growing kai (product and food)) developed by Te Waka Kai Ora (National Maori Organics Authority). It is based on the infinite richness and wisdom of whānau and hapū. In October 2024, Jess Hutchings led mana wahine to Vandana Shiva’s Navdanya in India to make a declaration of soil sovereignty. What does this mean for the way we interact with whenua, for soil activism and hua parakore?

When data is part of how your community thinks, plans, remembers, part of your identity and your wellbeing… what does it mean that for a 3rd party to hold that, to hold you? What does it mean to exist Te Ao Māori infrastructure, beyond colonial ontologies/ models of meaning?

Matou is a Māori organisation that builds digital tools to support thriving Māori communities, with data sovereignty as a core pillar. I’ve been honoured to be able to contribute to this mahi as Tāngata Tiriti, and here I’ll be bringing insights from 6+ years of co-design and collaboration with community partners.

This workshop is designed to:

• bring you up to speed on the discourse around Data Sovereignty
• give you a tour of concrete work Matou have done in this space
• fire you up about data sovereignty

Links: matou.nz, ahau.io

The Internet started as a decentralized academic network and morphed into something dominated by a few social media giants that now mediate how we connect and communicate. There’s a now an opportunity to shift back to a more decentralised internet, where control lies with users,. From Mastodon to Bluesky, a new vision of social networking is taking shape – one that echoes the Internet’s original peer-to-peer principles. This workshop will touch on Past, Present and Possible Futures of our digitally connected world. Free to attend. Koha appreciated.

How do groups find space, negotiate contracts and maintain good governance in informal or impermanent relationships to sites? If we imposed an economic incentive for use of empty sites what implications does this have for city making?

With the proliferation of internet and social media technologies, it’s common for people to feel overwhelmed by the amount of content and information saturation that has ensued.

In response, some folks have found themselves devoted to various arts under the banner of “Personal Knowledge Management”, often abbreviated as PKM. One of the many methods in this niche is known as Digital Gardening - a poetic gesture to the core idea that our relationship to information could be one of cultivation, creating pathways for returning and transforming information into knowledge.

Join Clay Joy Smith for an afternoon of knowledge gardening in a social, supportive environment. Bring your questions and your laptops or other devices (if you’d like to get hands on)!

Background reading (optional): https://hapgood.us/2015/10/17/the-garden-and-the-stream-a-technopastoral/

How does Community Radio build and honour relationships and alternative voices? How can we use radio as a tool for connectivity, humanity, and education? This workshop will discuss such questions, specifically addressing case studies around the world, and potential methods to mobilise our resources here in the South Pacific. Jack will specifically talk about the evolution of Mouthfull Radio veering toward more distributed governance and accessible programming.

Drawing on Lumbung principles of generosity, humor, local anchoring, independence, regeneration, transparency and frugality, the Lumbung Radio manifesto provides an opportunity for a consideration of these ideas in Aotearoa.

We invite anybody interested in creative radio forms, community platforming, and a wider berth of digital and physical commoning.

Following a compelling talk at Vogelmorn’s Disaster Innovation Research and Teaching (DIRT) group on Sunday 24th November, Julian will discuss ways we can get information and communicate with each other if an earthquake, extreme weather or other event results in outage of Internet, television and phone networks. Communication fallbacks covered will include analog radio, software radio and mesh networking with a focus on practicality and accessibility for those less technically minded.

In this workshop, we will tap into our inherent connection with Te Taiao (the natural world that we are all part of), and explore the meaning and practice of being part of Te Taiao. We will reflect and share stories of our personal connections with nature, exchange lessons from the natural world, and explore pathways to deepen our connectedness with living beings and the wider environment in which we belong. We will expand our sense of togetherness with Te Taiao through meditation, art-making, journaling, and sensory connection with the environment. Overall, it will be a nourishing and grounding experience, which is no less critical and political in a time of change.

How do we reclaim and protect tino rangatiratanga in digital realms? What does mana motuhake look like when Indigenous self-determination collides with global politics and contested territories? And how can kotahitanga guide us in building unified futures?

In this talk, Tanya will share her journey navigating data sovereignty through initiatives like the Indigenous Data Sovereignty Treaty and the challenges of upholding He Whakaputanga and Te Tiriti in Aotearoa’s evolving constitutional landscape. She will also reflect on the global ramifications of mapping Indigenous territories, including Native Land Digital’s experiences with mapping Palestine, and the international pressure faced from partners, funders, academics, institutions and public.

This kōrero invites you to explore how sovereignty extends beyond land and sea into the digital realm, and how we can collectively envision and enact systems that honour the interconnectedness of Indigenous rights, justice, and unity.

How do we get ready for the unknown? This workshop takes the question to an astro-ecological scale, exploring the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) through the lens of justice.

Participants will learn about real-world messages sent from Earth, like the Arecibo Message and NASA’s Golden Record, and engage with four future scenarios developed by SETI researchers at the SETI Post-Detection Hub.

Through hands-on activities, storytelling, and the music of the Golden Record, the workshop invites experimentation with more-than-human messaging and creative technologies. Together, we will explore the entanglement of technology and intangible culture, crafting life-giving signals and reimagining how we prepare for unprecedented events through cosmic perspectives.

Drawing on insight from art and science, disaster studies and cultural research, the workshop considers technosignatures from Earth and beyond. How can we recognise rich signals of life? Can we imagine the cosmos as communicative? And, how can we craft beautiful signals that convey values like welcome, respect, and reciprocity?

This day long intensive will cover operations and information security challenges and strategies localised to an Aotearoa NZ activism context. From digital hygiene to metadata, encrypted messaging and tracking, physical and networked surveillance, participants will walk out with newfound skills and mindsets to model threats, assess risks, and build operations plans that not only center mission safety, but also that of their fellow activists and loved ones.

Government and corporate surveillance tactics and histories will be covered, as will best-practice pre- and post-arrest strategies for the at-risk. Participants are invited to bring devices to the course to the ends of installing digital privacy and anonymity tools.

Please note, this workshop is solely for activists working in strictly non-violent capacities, in service to people and planet. Due to present pressures, tangata whenua will be given priority in booking ,with a maximum class size of 20 allocated.

Give a 5-10 minute talk about anything you care about! Possible themes include: healthy communities in a digital age, land politics, movement building, data life cycles, things your grandma taught you, how to crowdsource, etc.

Email beautifulsignals@proton.me to express your interest, or turn up on the day and see whether there’s space!

Give a 5-10 minute talk about anything you care about! Possible themes include: healthy communities in a digital age, land politics, movement building, data life cycles, things your grandma taught you, how to crowdsource, etc.

Email beautifulsignals@proton.me to express your interest, or turn up on the day and see whether there’s space!