Abstract
Taonga Māori (Māori treasures) provide vitality, inspiration, and resilience to their community. Digital representations of taonga Māori offer opportunities to interact with and share taonga that may not be physically accessible due to being held in museums or private collections, or due to the people with connections to the taonga residing away from their communities. However, it is not clear how taonga should be represented digitally, and whether current tools can support appropriate interactions with taonga. This paper sets out a collaborative research approach employing prototypes to support conversations with Rongowhakaata Iwi Trust in Aotearoa New Zealand about their needs and priorities around digital taonga. These conversations are part of an ongoing research project between the Trust and university academics in which we aim to design infrastructure and processes that align with traditional knowledge practices and tribal worldviews. Through these conversations, we were able to identify design considerations for digitising taonga as well as for the software applications in which the digital representations of taonga may be embedded.