In Aotearoa New Zealand (Aotearoa NZ), Māori (the Indigenous peoples of New Zealand) have long been objects of surveillance by state institutions and agents. State representations have centred on constructions of difference and deviance, on understandings of Indigenous peoples as dangerous, and on the management of Indigenous resistance to colonialism. This chapter considers how contemporary state surveillance practices in Aotearoa NZ, enabled by the expanded use of big data and linked government datasets, function to regulate and manage Māori. Through this lens, we explore continuities of current data practices for Indigenous peoples with the racialised logics and social orders set in place as part of global systems of imperialism and colonialism. Recognising that resistance has always been a part of Indigenous responses to colonialism, we also explore how Māori Data Sovereignty (MDSov), as part of broader Indigenous Data Sovereignty (IDS) movements globally, provides opportunities to counter and disrupt prevailing data relations and to imagine alternative futures.

In First World colonised nations such as Aotearoa New Zealand and Australia, population statistics form the evidentiary base for how Indigenous peoples are known and `managed' through state policy approaches. Yet, population statistics are not a neut

A new kind of data revolution is unfolding around the world, one that is unlikely to be on the radar of tech giants and the power brokers of Silicon Valley. Indigenous Data Sovereignty (IDSov) is a rallying cry for Indigenous communities seeking to regain control over their information while pushing back against data colonialism and its myriad harms. Led by Indigenous academics, innovators, and knowledge-holders, IDSov networks now exist in the United States , Canada , Aotearoa (New Zealand), Australia , the Pacific , and Scandinavia , along with an international umbrella group, the Global Indigenous Data Alliance (GIDA) . Together, these networks advocate for the rights of Indigenous Peoples over data that derive from them and that pertain to Nation membership, knowledge systems, customs, or territories. This lens on data sovereignty not only exceeds narrow notions of sovereignty as data localization and jurisdictional rights but also upends the assumption that the nation state is the legitimate locus of power. IDSov has thus become an important catalyst for broader conversations about what Indigenous sovereignty means in a digital world and how some measure of self-determination can be achieved under the weight of Big Tech dominance.

Social practices, interactions and relations are increasingly being turned into data, driven by technologies that enable new methods of data accumulation, digitisation, integration and manipulation...