Dear Department of Internal Affairs,

I was interested to see the Chief Archivist, Stephen Clarke's, recent LinkedIn post about Māori Data Sovereignty. I was interested because I didn't think the government had come to any position on Māori Data Sovereignty, despite the fact that Māori data is clearly subject to the rights laid out in Te Tiriti and the UN Declaration on the rights of Indigenous Peoples, which Aotearoa has signed. Also because Archives NZ holds significant amounts of mātauranga concerning Māori, and so the Chief Archivist's position on how this should be managed is important.

My interest quickly turned to disappointment when I saw the Chief Archivist of New Zealand say that Māori do not know what they want with regard to their data.

I note that the post was edited multiple times and then removed, which doesn't seem particularly transparent for a public official. My question is, does the DIA, and associated Chief Executives, Ministers etc who are Mr Clarke's superiors, support this position on Māori Data Sovereignty from the Chief Archivist of New Zealand, that Māori do not know what they want? What is the DIA's position on this matter?

I would like to see any and all correspondence generated by department officials in relation to Mr Clarke's post. I would also like to know whether any disciplinary action was taken with regard to Mr Clarke in this instance?

Yours faithfully,

L Brown