Maori Algorithmic Sovereignty

What is Māori Data Sovereignty

Māori data is data produced by Māori or about Māori

or the environments that Māori have relationships

with. Data is a living tāonga and is of value to Māori

example of Māori Data

Data from government agencies, organisations and businesses

• Data about Māori used to describe/compare Māori collectives

• Data about Te Ao Māori that emerges from research

What is Māori Algorithmic Sovereignty

Algorithms that use Māori data, or

are applied to Māori individuals, collectives, or

environments that Māori have rights or interests in,

should be subject to Māori governance structures

Rangatiratanga

Authority

Control

-permission, how it is collected, used and stored

Jurisdiction should be stored/deployed in a way that enhances control, within Aotearoa

Example: using a NZ cloud service (e.g. Catalyst)

where people have opted-in (informed consent) to

their health data being analysed

Whakapapa

Relationships

Transparency- whos involved, deployment, explainability

Data Relationship- how is Maori data used throughout the algorithm

Sustaianability

algorithmic outputs are used for long-

term sustainable benefit to Māori & environment

An indigenous example: the “Pima Indians” dataset was

collected from a long-term study of indigenous peoples

in the USA. Became used as an ML “benchmark

dataset” without any real permission from the Pima

Whanaungatanga

Obligations

-balancing rights and accountabijlity

Kotahitanga

Collective Benefit

-output in future helps Māori or the environment

-Builds capacity, development of a Māori workforce –

empower Māori and learn by teaching (ako)

• Solidarity: supporting connections between Māori

and other indigenous peoples to enable sharing of

ideas, strategies for fair algorithmic development

Manaakitanga

Reciprocity

respect

consent

privacy

Kaitiakitanga

Guardianship

Ethics

Restrictions- Māori should decide if input/output is tapu or noa

Overall 6 groups

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