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The Department of Internal Affairs Te Tari Taiwhenua is working with iwi advisors and experts to decide whether the Crown should collect data about people’s iwi affiliation.
The Crown stopped systematically recording iwi affiliation information in 1961.
The Iwi Affiliation Data Decision Group has been set up to decide if and how the registrar-general of births, deaths and marriage should collect such data.
Co-chair Dr Kirikowhai Mikaere says electoral rolls and census statistics have limited use for iwi decision making, and the wider government data ecosystem needs to be more responsive to Iwi Māori.
The registrar general, Jeff Montgomery, and the department is modernising the civil registration system, so it’s an opportunity to work with iwi to collect, hold and share iwi affiliation information – if that’s what’s decided.
Dr Mikaere says her rōpū is broadly supportive of the Crown collecting iwi affiliation data, but with several strong caveats, including the ability for iwi to opt out.
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