Your data carries whakapapa.
How we honour Māori data sovereignty and care for what you entrust to us.
When you share data with us — survey responses from whānau, the numbers behind a kaupapa, the story of an organisation — you are placing taonga in our care. Mana raraunga, Māori data sovereignty, shapes how we hold it. These are the principles we work to, in plain language.
Data is not neutral
Data about Māori people, communities and taonga carries whakapapa, mana and mauri. Caring for it well is an act of kaitiakitanga, not just a compliance task. We are economists who work mostly with iwi, rūnanga and kaupapa Māori organisations, so this sits at the centre of how we work, not at the edge.
The six principles below are those set out by Te Mana Raraunga, the Māori Data Sovereignty Network (2018). We apply them to our work gathering data and producing impact and economic analysis.
Each principle is a value we hold, and a practice you can hold us to.
Authority
You keep authority over your data. You own it; we hold it as a trusted steward, never as the owner. Decisions about how it is used, stored and shared stay with you.
Relationships
Every dataset has origins. We record where data came from, why it was gathered and who it connects to, so its context travels with it and is never lost.
Accountability
We are accountable to the community the data comes from, not only to the contract. Collective interests are weighed alongside individual ones.
Collective benefit
Your data exists to create value for you. You receive the insights and the outputs; we do not extract value from it without returning it.
Consent & dignity
Consent comes first — free, prior and informed. We treat data with the respect due to the people it represents, and never frame analysis in ways that stigmatise or blame. Our outputs lead with strengths.
Guardianship
We act as kaitiaki, guarding data on behalf of its owners and those who come after. You decide what is tapu (restricted) and what is noa (open) — and we return or delete your data whenever you ask.
What you can hold us to
- Treat the data you share as taonga, with the care due to the people it represents.
- Keep you as the owner of your data; we act as steward, never as owner.
- Gather data only with free, prior and informed consent, and use it only for what was agreed.
- Lead with strengths, and never produce analysis that stigmatises or blames.
- Hold your information securely and in confidence throughout our work, sharing it only as you direct.
- Return your data, or delete it, whenever you ask.
Our approach reflects Te Tiriti o Waitangi; the principles of Māori Data Sovereignty articulated by Te Mana Raraunga; the Privacy Act 2020; and the global CARE Principles for Indigenous Data Governance. Where an iwi or organisation has its own tikanga, kawa or data-governance settings, we work within them.
This is a statement of how we work, not a sales pitch. If you want to talk through how we would handle your data on a specific piece of work, we are happy to.
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Questions about how we would handle your data?
The first kōrero is free and needs no preparation. Tell us what you are working on and what data is involved, and we will talk you through how we would care for it.
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