While both New Zealand and Australia have a shared history, each tells a separate story of sovereignty. Both began as British colonies and, when Australia became a federation in 1901, there was opportunity for New Zealand to join. It chose not to do so. To use an image from Moori, New Zealand's indigenous language, it decided to paddle its own waka (canoe). A century and a bit later, the New Zealand Legal Information Institute (NZLII) is another iteration of that drive to differentiate, born of a hope that an indigenous online identity might help to build more comprehensive free access to its legal information.