Kalinda tiaki Foundation was created from the observation that while the ICT sector is one of the best paid industries and has been growing exponentially over the past few years there is still a huge lack of indigenous professionals in this industry.
Our mission is to significantly improve lives of indigenous families through employment opportunities in the growing technology sector and ultimately create indigenous led equity through technology.

The Founding Partners

The Kalinda-tiaki foundation is a Trans-tasman collaboration between two proud Indigenous technology companies that enables indigenous youth to enter technology related careers.

KalindaIT is a proud First Nations Technology Company based in Sydney, Australia.

Providing IT technology solutions and services to major industry, Government and corporate clients.

KalindaIT was founded by Michael Dickerson - a proud Wajarri-Nunda man from Yamatji Country.

Michael Dickerson

Founder/CEO

Michael is a proud Wajarri-Nunda man “Desert meets Sea”, from Yamatji Country. With more than 20 years’ experience in the technology industry, Michael is currently the CEO & Founder of Kalinda IT (an Indigenous MSP) and Gambarra (an emerging technology aggregator / distributor).

Having started his career as an Engineer, Michael has delivered major projects for Government and Enterprise customers across the Asia Pacific region.

Michael is currently rolling out Edge Data Centre across regional locations across Australia, creating in country jobs and pathways for local youth to embark on their IT Journey.

tiaki's mission is to provide outstanding outcomes for indigenous students worldwide.

It does this by recognising the interests, talents and strengths of each student and 'engages the village' around them to ensure they succeed.

tiaki was founded by Duane Grace - a descendant of Ngāti Porou, Te Whānau ā Apanui and Ngāi Tahu.

Duane Grace

Founder/CEO

Duane is a descendant of Ngāti Porou, Te Whānau ā Apanui and Ngāi Tahu

Having spent the 20+ years in the education and technology sectors, having managed and consulted on numerous projects of national interest.

As well as being the CEO of tiaki, Duane sits on the New Zealand Tech Board, is an Executive at EdTechNZ and Chairs the ANZLF Technology Trade and Investment workstream.