Dr Heke is of Māori descent and was raised in the mountain environments of New Zealand’s South Island. Over the past 40 years Dr Heke has been a guide in Milford Sound’s World Heritage Park, a mountain bike and ski guide in numerous alpine locations globally and more recently leading groups to experience traditional Māori environmental science. Dr Heke has post graduate degrees in Environmental Management, educational psychology and a PhD in population health. Dr Heke’s current research focus has been using Systems Dynamics to help Māori and other indigenous groups abroad, build their own health and wellness activities through traditional environmental knowledge. In this capacity, Dr Heke was awarded a research grant by Johns Hopkins University combining Systems Science and Maori Environmental Connections. Dr Heke also retains teaching positions with Case Western Reserve University and Montana State University. Dr Heke’s current role is with Google X’s (San Francisco) generative AI initiative. Dr Heke has also been developing VR180 Māori environmental experiences with a particular interest in high performance sport. More specifically his work has been looking at converting elite athletes into environmental champions by teaching them how to be environmentally centred rather than athlete centred in the ways that they train and evaluate elite performance.

Key Note Topics of discussion

• Māori ancestral concepts of health obtained from the environment
• Production of Indigenous generative AI models
• Environmental connections between high performance sport, climate change, indigenous ways of knowing and generative AI.