The Indigenous Tech Summit 2026, billed as Aotearoa's first, runs 26-27 November 2026 at Takina in Wellington, hosted by Te Hapori Matihiko, bringing Maori and global Indigenous tech communities together around AI, data sovereignty and enterprise.
The Indigenous Tech Summit 2026 is billed on its official Humanitix page as "Aotearoa's first Indigenous Tech Summit" - two days of keynotes and korero from Indigenous innovators across Aotearoa and the globe. It runs Thursday 26 to Friday 27 November 2026 at Takina in Wellington, opening at 8am on day one and closing at 5:15pm on day two (per the event site). The programme is organised around two kaupapa: Day 1, Te Pae Tata (The Near Horizon), focused on vision, leadership and data sovereignty and opening with whakatau and karakia; and Day 2, Te Pae Tawhiti (The Distant Horizon), focused on enterprise and innovation with venture networking, demos and lightning talks across an expo floor, closing with poroporoaki. Themes span artificial intelligence, data sovereignty, enterprise and workforce development. Early announced kaikorero include Prof. Te Taka Keegan (University of Waikato), Dr. Desi Small-Rodriguez (UCLA / Indigenous Data Alliance), Ikaika Bishop, and Meg Smith (founder of Cloverbase), with the full programme listed as to be announced.
The summit is hosted by Te Hapori Matihiko, described on the event listing as a community for Maori in digitech, with its home online at matihiko.nz. Registrations and enquiries run through kiaora@matihiko.nz, and the summit positions itself as a gathering point for the Maori and wider Indigenous technology sector in Aotearoa.
Per the event site, the summit is aimed at the Maori and global Indigenous tech communities - innovators, entrepreneurs, researchers, data and AI practitioners, enterprise leaders and rangatahi. The ticket inclusions (keynotes and panels, networking, an expo zone and a dedicated rangatahi zone) signal a mix of senior industry figures and emerging talent.
The event site confirms the venue as Takina, the Takina Wellington Convention and Exhibition Centre, at 50 Cable Street, Te Aro, Wellington 6011. As factual context: Takina opened in 2023 as Wellington's purpose-built convention and exhibition centre and sits on the central waterfront opposite Te Papa, within easy walking distance of the Courtenay Place and Cable Street hotel clusters and the central city. Wellington Airport is roughly a 15-20 minute drive from the waterfront, and the compact CBD means most delegate movement between accommodation, the venue and evening functions is walkable, which suits a two-day summit with networking and expo components.
A first-of-its-kind national Indigenous tech summit anchoring at Takina is a signal event for Wellington's business-events calendar: it brings a distinctly Aotearoa kaupapa - Maori data sovereignty, Indigenous AI and digital enterprise - to an international-standard venue, and draws both domestic delegates and global Indigenous visitors. Multi-day conferences of this kind generate measurable value through accommodation nights, catering, expo and venture-networking spend, and they reinforce Takina and Wellington as a destination for purpose-led, sector-defining gatherings rather than generic conventions.
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