Māori tech company wins NZ and international awards on same night – Te Ao Māori News

Māori technology success is being celebrated this weekend in Aotearoa and across the Asia-Pacific region.

A pioneering drone technology company and an inspiring technology leader both won industry acclaim at the New Zealand Hi-Tech Awards in Tāmaki Makaurau on Friday night, while the new Māori Hi-Tech Business of the Year 2024 also won an award. coveted prize in the Philippines.

Tauranga-based Envico Technologies and Te Ao Matihiko (Ngāti Tamaterā, Ngāti Raukawa, Ngāti Porou, Ngāpuhi, Ngāi Tūhoe) president Elle Archer toast the Māori technology community after their successful awards at Spark Arena yesterday evening, with a record 1,300 participants. personalities and supporters present.

Envico Technologies

“Shocked and honored” is how Cameron Baker (Te Rarawa, Tūhoe, Ngāti Kahungunu), CEO and co-founder of Envico Technologies, described the company’s recognition as a Hi-Tech Kamupene Māori o te Tau.

“Really excited for our team as well. I think it’s a great recognition for the hard work they’ve put into the business and the results we’ve been able to achieve.

“So yeah, I’m really, really happy.”

The company is pioneering specialized drones and automated systems for conservation and biosecurity, including the use of drone technology for seed distribution and pest control to protect native species.

A “village” is responsible for their success, Baker explains.

“Poutama Trust, Callaghan Innovation, NZTE (New Zealand Trade and Enterprise), these groups have been with us since the inception of the company. It’s a big family, a vast village of support outside of our own core team.

Friday was a “very fun night,” Baker says, as the company also won a second prize in the Philippines, one of the most prestigious business awards in the world.

“We invited two more members of our team to Manila because we also won the Gold Stevie Award for Project of the Year in the Biodiversity category.”

Although the company has enjoyed this success, Baker modestly describes himself as “a 100 percent regular guy.”

“I’m a regular guy who was presented with an opportunity. And this opportunity gives me the opportunity to pursue a passion. And my passion has always been seeing kiwis in our garden.

“I discovered an interesting statistic. We are known for the number of sheep we have, but we have more possums in the country than sheep, and they are pest animals that prey on our kiwis. So my passion is seeing kiwis in our garden. I know how enormous this task is.

Baker attributes much of the company’s success, particularly internationally, to the fact that it is fundamentally a Māori business – an attribute that particularly appeals to the world’s indigenous communities, he says.

“The opportunities we have been given overseas, and the reason we have been so successful, is because Māori are excellent and passionate communicators.

“Our (Māori) values ​​here in New Zealand are represented all over the world. We help indigenous communities who face exactly the same challenges as us and who share exactly the same values ​​as ours.

“So it’s very easy to communicate what the good could potentially look like and what the opportunities for collaboration are.” Whereas in some cases you might say “here’s how to do it” and not get buy-in.

“Being able to take a set of core Māori values ​​overseas has been a huge asset for us. Everyone wants the same result, everyone wants a gain in biodiversity, everyone wants to protect their native species or their taonga.

“Luckily we’ve been doing this for a long, long time here in New Zealand. And that’s an opportunity that we’ve been able to seize overseas that people really like.

Eager to see other Māori technology companies succeed, Baker says he’s happy they’re asking him for advice.

“I know Māori need to support each other to promote big ideas here and internationally. So I’m always happy to help people navigate the journey of starting a business and getting support here in New Zealand, like we did.

“Please let anyone know that they can contact me and I will help you. »

Elle Archer

Technology expert Elle Archer, president of Te Ao Matihiko, a collective of Māori organizations fostering Māori excellence in the technology sector, also enjoyed a successful evening.

She feels “a nice choice” after winning the Inspirational High-Tech Individual award, but says the award is about the collective, not her.

“It’s a recognition of our shared kaupapa, the much larger kaupapa that we do, which is in service to whānau, hapū, iwi,” says Archer.

“Additionally, the importance of our mahi in evolving the narrative… towards the digital influence and digital enrichment of our people, which is part of the shared vision of Te Ao Matihiko and Te Hapori Matihiko, the Māori Tech Association.

“Even though it says Inspiring Individual in Tech, we work as a collective, we move forward as one. It is a choice to be recognized, but recognition is for the collective and not for the individual.

Māori should feel excited about the world of opportunities technology offers them, Archer says.

“Hard! As Māori, it’s a space for us – and it’s huge, it’s limitless.

“We want to make sure we’re ‘in there,’ but to be there we need to inspire curiosity within our hapori, our communities.

“Bring them through the door, instead of through the door. Bring them those doors of opportunity.