A new home for Māori Data
By: Ngapera Riley
Tags: Data, Maori, New Zealand, Open Data

E ngā mana, e ngā reo, e ngā karangatanga maha, rau rangatira ma!

On behalf of Figure.NZ, I am proud to announce the launch of Pātaka Raraunga, a world first platform that brings together data, tools and reports to help make Māori data easier to access and use.

You can find Pātaka Raraunga at https://maori.figure.nz

Read on to learn more, or register for our free introduction webinars every Thursday in October:

Registration Links:

What is it?

Pātaka Raraunga is a free website where anyone can access data, tools, and reports for and about Māori.

Pātaka Raraunga is part of an innovative, scalable technology project, supported by Callaghan Innovation. It’s designed to help boost data capability for Māori and help make transformational change for Aotearoa.

Why did you make it?

Data is widely recognised as one of the most valuable assets of the modern world. Large businesses and agencies are investing huge amounts of money into data, tools and expertise. Yet many Māori and people who work with Māori, from public sector and business to those working on the ground efforts in NGO’s, social services, and charities, are largely working in the dark when it comes to data.

This is compounded by reliable data for and about Māori being hard to find and use. Many agencies have collected helpful and interesting information, from Stats NZ to MBIE to the Ministry of Education, but unless you know it exists and where to look for, you never get to access this treasure trove of information.

We want to help make more Māori data easier to find and use. We built Pātaka Raraunga to help.

Figure.NZ has published more than 2000 charts and over 60 tables of reliable Māori data that can help Maori organisations, and those who serve Māori, communities and whanau. We see this as an important first step to begin teaching people how to use data in ways that can help them make better decisions. Tino rangatiratanga in the digital age if you will.

We’ve combined this with reports and tools from other organisations working in Te Ao Māori, so everyone has access to their valuable insights and shares their benefits.

We also know that the world in which we operate now is rapidly changing. People have access to more information than ever before, but that access is not evenly distributed. We can see the potential for the already large gap to further expand if we don’t support Māori to understand the importance of and develop the skills to use data.

Who’s behind it?

Pātaka Raraunga is created by the team at Figure.NZ, a charity committed to making New Zealand’s public, aggregate data available through our website — for free, for everyone, forever — because we believe data is not just for experts, and it’s true value lies in people using it in their day to day lives.

We’ve put data about New Zealand from over 180 different organisations into one easily searchable place, where more than 47,000 charts and datasets are available.

Pātaka Raraunga was created with the support of our friends at Callaghan Innovation. Our organisations believe that technology and data must evolve to have public good at its core. We want to see a New Zealand where people, communities, and businesses use data to thrive. When Māori thrive, we all do! We are grateful for Callaghan Innovation’s support and are actively seeking further financial support to continue work in this area.

How do we learn more?

Go to https://maori.figure.nz/ or join us for series of free webinars showcasing Pātaka Raraunga, each Thursday in October at 3.30pm — 4.30pm.

Registration Links: