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A Maori demographer says the latest iwi census figures show iwi are still relevant to Maori people.
Dr Tahu Kukutai from Waikato University's National Institute of Demographic and Economic Analysis says it's significant that more than 4 out of every 5 Maori knows enough about their whakapapa to write an iwi in the census.
Factors such as recent treaty settlements can lead to spikes in identification with particular iwi.
She says the way people identify their iwi can still lead to uncertainty, and it's hard to tell from the data the specifics of where people come from when they say they are from large iwi groupings like Ngapuhi, Waikato Tainui or Te Arawa.
"Every iwi is not necessarily straight forward but I think what it gives us from the census data is a really robust, pretty accuarate snapshot of where iwi population, how big they are , what the composition looks like, where people live and of course that's a really important question for iwi because it's not like 80-90 years ago where most people lived in their rohe. That's just not the case any more so it's really important for iwi to know where their members are," she says.
Tahu Kukutai says the census can never give a completely accurate count for iwi, because it doesn't count members who are overseas, and there was also a signficant of udercount of about 7 percent of Maori who did not fill in census forms.
FOR THE FULL INTERVIEW WITH DR TAHU KUKUTAI CLICK ON THE LINK
http://www.waateanews.com/play_podcast?podlink=MjE1OTA=
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