Library and Information Advisory Commission Ngā Kaiwhakamārama I ngā Kohikohinga Kōrero

Position Statement on Mātauranga Māori - September 2025[1]

Responsibility for providing advice

Section 23 of The National Library of New Zealand (Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa) Act 2003 requires the Library and Information Commission Ngā Kaiwhakamārama I ngā Kohikohinga Kōrero (“LIAC”), “to provide advice to the Minister [with responsibility for the National Library] on library and information issues, including mātauranga Māori.”

As part of its mandate, LIAC is responsible for ensuring that mātauranga Māori is prioritised within its activities and approach, ensuring that its work aligns with its legislative obligations. This includes observing, monitoring, and supporting the National Library of New Zealand (NLNZ) in its engagement with iwi and the integration of Mātauranga Māori into its practices.

In addition, LIAC will continue to provide informed advice to the Minister on matters relating to Mātauranga Māori, and how this aligns with the broader responsibilities of libraries, archives, and museums, ensuring that this advice is consistent with the intent of the National Library of New Zealand (Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa) Act 2003.

Definition of Mātauranga Māori

While LIAC has a requirement to provide advice to the Minister on issues including mātauranga Māori, the Interpretation section (section 4) of the act does not define mātauranga Māori. LIAC acknowledges that definitions of mātauranga Māori and its application in a library and information context vary. The Commission has decided to endorse the definition developed by the Partnerships and Commissions Branch Te Au Kaha, Department of Internal Affairs[2] as follows.

“Mātauranga Māori means the enduring and constantly evolving nature of Mātauranga: a Māori knowledge ecosystem that seeks to explain phenomena by drawing on concepts handed from one generation of Māori to another. Accordingly, mātauranga Māori has no beginning and is without end. Each passing generation of Māori make their own contribution to mātauranga Māori. The theory, or collection of theories, with associated values and practices, has accumulated mai i te Ao Māori/from Māori beginnings and will continue to accumulate providing the whakapapa of mātauranga Māori is unbroken.”

In adopting this definition, LIAC acknowledges that traditional Māori knowledge was passed down orally, as well as being represented in other forms including whakairo (carvings), tukutuku (woven panels), tūtakiwā (place names), and ngā mahi a Te Rēhia (traditional performing arts). It is recognised that certain aspects of mātauranga Māori were carefully controlled in many different spheres, where some was shared among tribes, and some remained specific to a single iwi, hapū, marae, or whānau. Any discussion of mātauranga Māori must take this wider context into account.

In adopting this definition, LIAC acknowledges that traditional Māori knowledge was passed down orally, as well as being represented in other forms including whakairo (carvings), tukutuku (woven panels), tūtakiwā (place names), and ngā mahi a Te Rēhia (traditional performing arts). It is recognised that certain aspects of mātauranga Māori were carefully controlled in many different spheres, where some was shared among tribes, and some remained specific to a single iwi, hapū, marae, or whānau.  Any discussion of mātauranga Māori must take this wider context into account.

Mātauranga Māori within libraries

The collections of libraries around New Zealand contain art works, photographs, maps, audio recordings, physical objects and books which contain or embody mātauranga Māori. Libraries, especially the National Library of New Zealand, are encouraged to build and support relationships with whānau, hapū and iwi who have interests in those holdings, around reciprocal ownership of the items and access to them.

Intellectual property in New Zealand law is based on Western concepts of property rights, and there is an open and ongoing debate about whether and how copyright in New Zealand can be updated to ensure that Māori interests are protected in an environment where advances in technology such as Artificial Intelligence and Large Language Models might compromise these.

Mātauranga Māori and Wai 262

Wai 262 is a Waitangi Tribunal claim about the recognition of rights around, and control of, traditional Māori knowledge, customs, and relationships with the natural environment[3]. Mātauranga Māori is at the heart of the Wai 262 treaty claim. A report called Ko Aotearoa tēnei (2011) includes a specific section relating to Archives and Libraries and situations where the Crown controls Mātauranga Māori.

We are monitoring Wai 262′s progress for its impact on libraries in general, and the collections and services offered by the National Library of New Zealand in particular.

We consider that until the Government position on Wai 262 has been enunciated or we are consulted, we will not be able to give the Minister any further advice relating to the impact that the outcomes of the Wai262 report might have on Māori cultural and intellectual property rights as they apply to the collections held by the National Library of New Zealand.

The National Library and Mātauranga Māori

The National Library has formalised relationships with a number of Māori groups and iwi regarding Māori materials held in the collections, as part of an ongoing programme of Letters of Commitment[4] coming from Treaty settlement processes. An engagement template between iwi and the National Library is being used, based on previous engagement processes related to iwi and the Crown within a Treaty claim settlement process.

International connections

We endorse New Zealand’s continuing involvement with the work of indigenous information professionals worldwide, to support their efforts and learn from their experience.

The Commission’s Māori name

The Māori name for the Commission, Ngā Kaiwhakamārama I ngā Kohikohinga Kōrero, was suggested by Te Taura Whiri and is included in the National Library Act. The Māori name has the broad, literal meaning of ‘those who clarify or explain or advise on collections/collecting of information’. This may be interpreted literally to mean all knowledge workers. However, idiomatically, together with the English name, the title means ‘the advisers on the library and information sector’ or ‘the official advisers on the library and information sector’.

Understanding the origins of its name is important to LIAC. It recognises that if traditional Māori knowledge is not protected, preserved and promoted in New Zealand, where else could this be guaranteed.[5]

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