Taonga transition
Thousands of whenua Māori records are being digitised and moved to a fit-for-purpose storage facility as part of the organisation’s multi-year transition to the Cloud.
As the needs of whenua Māori landowners evolve, the technology used to support these needs should also adapt, says Ruth Russell, Kaitautari Pārongo Matua | Chief Information Officer for Te Tumu Paeroa.
After developing a Māori Data Sovereignty Framework to underpin the work ahead, Ruth’s team set about transforming the way whenua Māori information was held and accessed by the organisation.
“Data carries the mana, tapu and mauri of the person and land it represents – and once you acknowledge that, it changes the way you handle and manage the data,” Ruth explains.
In May 2024, Te Tumu Paeroa signed an agreement to become one of the first tenants of Microsoft’s Aotearoa data centre.
“We have a whakatauki: ‘Aho roroa uaua hautū, aho popoto hautū marika’ – a kite with a short string is easier to control, a kite with a long string is more difficult to control but it benefits from the high winds,” says Ruth.
“Having our data in Aotearoa means we can have those high winds and the short string, enjoying the comfort and peace of having the data close, while being able to engage more easily with owners and support partners.”
Some data has previously been stored in Australia, and this is now being migrated back to New Zealand. Other data is not yet digitised – it is a physical file stored in Te Tumu Paeroa offices.
These files are gradually being catalogued, digitised and then the originals stored at an off-site, fit-for-purpose facility. Running through all these processes is a strong commitment to respecting tikanga.
“When we started the digitisation process, we gifted the team doing it an ipu so that they could practice wai whakanoa after working with the documents too – they can use the water in the ipu to remove the tapu. We also have this set up for the records we are still holding,” says Ruth.
New tools for a new generation
The work programme to transition the organisation’s data to the Cloud also enables tools such as image recognition, chatbots and machine learning to be used, says Ruth.
For example, machine learning could be used to support the processing of succession orders or, alongside image recognition, could be used after an extreme weather event to quickly assess damage to whenua.
The team has also been trialling the use of generative AI in the workplace, with training provided and close monitoring to ensure it’s being used responsibly, and all possible security issues are considered.
“We have seen some really great productivity gains in the testing phases, but we’ve also been aware of its pitfalls, that’s why the monitoring and training is so important,” says Ruth.
Pictured above: former Pou Tikanga, Te Hāmua Nikora, blessed the taonga before they were shifted to a fit-for-purpose storage facility.