NPM Te Kāhui Raraunga Karahipi Internship

Intern

Hannah Overbye, University of Auckland

Supervisor

Associate Professor Lara Greaves, Victoria University of Wellington

Overview

This was a project aimed at scoping the possibilities hapū, iwi and Māori organisations have to exercise Māori data sovereignty over electoral roll data, collected compulsorily about Māori for the administration of the electoral rolls by the Electoral Commission. 

The rolls and information on them about Māori, are currently accessed and used by groups who do not have explicit Māori interests (except for the Tūhono Trust). This project explored issues in current electoral roll data governance practices, and the complicated logic which excludes explicit Māori access when in reality, such access is a right affirmed by He Whakaputanga, Te Tiriti, the UNDRIP, the Waitangi Tribunal reports into the WAI 262 and WAI 2522 claims, and the recent Te Pou Matakana decisions of the High Court. Due to constraints, further exploration of the ‘how’ data governance could occur safely, and interrogating the particular interest and use for Māori electoral roll data by hapū, iwi and Māori organisations was left open, with this piece ‘gathering the harakeke’ that could be used by kaimahi to weave a more comprehensive and conclusive solution to the possibility of Māori data sovereignty over Māori electoral roll data.