Māori and the Integrated Data Infrastructure: an assessment of the data system and suggestions to realise Māori data aspirations

Abstract

The Statistics New Zealand Integrated Data Infrastructure (IDI) is a collection of de-identified whole-population administrative datasets. Researchers are increasingly utilising the IDI to answer pressing social and policy research questions. Our work provides an overview of the IDI, associated issues for Māori (the Indigenous peoples of New Zealand), and steps to realise Māori data aspirations. We first introduce the IDI including what it is and how it was developed. We then move to an overview of Māori Data Sovereignty. We consider the main issues with the IDI for Māori including technical issues and problems with ethnic identifiers, deficit-framed work, community involvement, consent, social licence, further data linkage, offshore access, and barriers to access for Māori. We finish with a set of recommendations around how to improve the IDI for Māori, making sure that Māori can get the most out of administrative data for our communities. These include the need to build data researcher capacity and capability for Māori; work with hapori Māori to increase utilisation; change accountability mechanisms, including greater co-governance of data; adequately fund alternatives; or potentially even abolishing the IDI and starting again.