Pacific AI & Data Sovereignty
The conversation about AI in the Pacific is rarely written by Pacific people who build and operate the systems. Marketing decks talk about "inclusive AI" while data flows one way — out of communities, into models owned elsewhere. Data sovereignty debates get reduced to where bytes are stored, when the harder fight is who collects indigenous knowledge, who benefits, and who gets a say.
These essays are my working notes from inside that gap — as a Pasifika engineer who has spent twenty-plus years in big tech, community tech, and the space between. Not policy whitepapers. Not hype. What I have seen work, what breaks, and what the glossy narratives leave out.
This hub collects the thread. Start anywhere; each essay links back here and to related pieces in the cluster.
Foundational — Data & Sovereignty
Data Sovereignty & The Cloud
Where your data lives vs. who can access it — and why the real sovereignty issue is indigenous data collection without consent or benefit.
Getting Paid For Your Data Sounds Great
Data marketplaces promise individual payouts. Indigenous data sovereignty is collective — and atomising it changes the power dynamic, not the outcome.
Pasifika, AI & Access
Pasifika And The AI Opportunity
AI tools can close the knowledge-access gap that has historically limited Pasifika education and economic advancement — if we understand the opportunity correctly.
The Knowledge Gap: Rethinking the Digital Divide for Pasifika
The digital divide for Pasifika is not a device problem. It is a knowledge gap in using technology for meaningful participation.
There is no Pasifika in Tech Problem
Reframing underrepresentation away from deficit narratives toward structural and narrative causes.
Pasifika Need Tech Leaders Who Are Technical
Community tech projects need CTO-level technical leadership — not vendor salespeople with a Pasifika logo on the slide deck.
AI Literacy & Governance
Beyond Netflix: AI Literacy Among Indigenous Tech Leaders
Surface-level AI knowledge among indigenous tech leaders is a sovereignty risk — especially when products weave AI with indigenous knowledge.
The Inevitability of AI
"AI is inevitable" is a narrative with an agenda. Question whose roadmap you are accepting by default.
The AI Resistance
Not pro-AI, not anti-AI — on real value, real harm, and why abstaining from the technology is not the move.
AI Is a Conversation
Most bad AI results are communication failures, not technology failures — context, scope, and collaborative thinking matter.
Identity & Politics
A Samoan Hacker's Manifesto
Identity, rebellion, and the Pasifika geek who never fit the stereotype — and why that matters for who gets to shape technology.
The Blue Pill Doesn't Work Here
There is no neutral position on politics as a Pasifika person in tech. Apolitical is still a position — and it will not protect you.
Related
- Start Here — curated entry point for guides and essays
- The Uncommon Engineer Newsletter — fortnightly signal on AI, power, and tech