Our Maori (non-health) colleagues are really leading the way with this:
It is hard to imagine this being a bad thing. It does mean that there is the potential to be behind the curve with the latest tech / AI updates, but I’m not sure that is actually a real problem.
I dream of a NZ digital health system which is hosted in NZ, with an open source software stack, and the local capability to deliver a world leading digital experience for patients and health providers.
Thanks for sharing @NathanK - a really good article and what looks like a promising solution. Data sovereignty is something we spend a bit of time on in class. I’m sure some of the @otago-students could chip in here.
The data is encrypted so only the party that stored the data in this store is able to decrypt it, meaning it holds little in value as a resource for AI learning (as discussed later in the article).
Are those parties storing data also storing non-Maori data?
I have been to many talks over the years on Maori data sovereignty but have never been able to understand the difference in terms of storage and privacy in relation to other cultures. If anyone has a link to something that really highlights the difference I would be very interested.
I’ve been pushing Māori data sovereignty at national level for years, unfortunately people don’t care I’ve faced a lot of racism and sexism because of it. I had to leave my last roles because of how bad it got the truth is Māori aren’t welcomed in digital health we never have been.
I’m sorry to hear that, Angela. But yes, we do have quite an undercurrant of ongoing racism / cultural imperialism here in New Zealand. Personally I believe that this needs to be exposed and confronted at every turn.
A recent classic example in our domain was the flip to “Health New Zealand | Te Whatu Ora” - shortly after the last NZ elections. Oh, and the last minute desperate push to get everyone onto healthnz.govt.nz domains before this next NZ election. All while pretending to not be racist. Makes my blood boil.
It probably isn’t very comforting, but I get the distinct impression that even white male clinicians aren’t particularly welcome in Digital Health either. An awful lot of public health system clinical informatics roles were disestablished in 2025 as a result of political decisions, and I certainly feel very unlistened to in our realm.
As a relatively recent immigrant myself, the things about NZ I like best are mostly due to Māori culture influencing wider NZ culture positively. Data sovereignty is one of them (which we can of course do much better).