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Māori GIS starts with kaupapa, people and place, not with software.

This site is a practical guide for iwi, hapū, whānau, Māori organisations and practitioners using spatial information in everyday mahi. GIS can help with whenua, taiao, hazards, planning, historical research, ingoa wāhi, field work and communication. It is one tool among many.

A map does not have to contain everything that is known. Some information belongs in kōrero, archives, whānau or limited-access systems. Some may be better represented as an approximate area, a source-linked record or no geometry at all. The useful question is what representation serves the kaupapa without creating false precision or unnecessary disclosure.

Choose your path​

I want to...Start hereYou should finish with...
learn GIS from the beginningLearning pathway or QGIS practical coursea working QGIS project and one useful map
answer a mapping questionChoose your mahi or Worked examplesa checked map, dataset or investigation with visible reasoning
find and check dataGIS data for Aotearoaa small set of useful sources with provenance and limitations recorded
work with history, Treaty material or ingoa wāhiHistorical researcha source-linked research log and mapped evidence where geography is justified
manage, protect or share Māori spatial informationMāori Data Sovereignty and Publishinga deliberate working and sharing approach suited to the kaupapa and audience

If none of those describes the immediate task, use the Māori GIS Toolkit as a practical index.

Before opening GIS​

A short kōrero about the kaupapa can prevent a lot of unnecessary mapping. Establish:

  1. what question or decision the mahi is supporting
  2. what whenua, wai, whakapapa or place relationships are involved
  3. what information already exists outside GIS
  4. what needs exact geometry and what does not
  5. who will use each output
  6. who needs to be able to understand and continue the work later

These questions matter more than whether the project uses QGIS, ArcGIS or another platform.

First map​

If you are completely new to GIS, keep the first session small:

  1. Install QGIS or open the GIS tool already available to you.
  2. Choose one familiar place and one real question.
  3. Add one useful public dataset or basemap.
  4. Check what the source represents, its date and its limitations.
  5. Add or create one layer that helps answer the question.
  6. Save the project with a clear name.
  7. Record the source and what you changed.

A small map that answers one question is more useful than a screen full of unexplained layers.

If you want a ready-made offline project and public starter data, use the Matawhenua GIS Starter Kit.

Keep the source visible​

For every source that materially affects the result, keep enough information to answer:

  • where did this information come from?
  • when was it created, captured or checked?
  • what was it created to represent?
  • what kind of authority does it have for this question?
  • what processing or interpretation has been applied?
  • what should not be inferred from it?

Use the common Provenance and source checking pattern. A URL alone is not enough.

What GIS represents poorly​

GIS is strong at geometry, comparison, measurement and organising evidence. It can be much weaker at relationships, overlapping authority, oral history, changing meanings and knowledge that should not be reduced to a point or polygon.

A cadastral parcel is not automatically whenua. A statistical boundary is not a rohe. An official name is not the only history of a place. A modelled hazard polygon is not an observed event. A precise coordinate can make uncertain evidence look certain.

Use Kaupapa Māori GIS when the difficult question is representation rather than software. Useful pages include Whakapapa and mapping, Who gets to name a place? and Things GIS cannot represent well.

A simple working pattern​

Across most of MāoriGIS.nz the practical sequence is:

kaupapa and question
→ sources and local context
→ source checking
→ working data
→ GIS analysis or mapping
→ interpretation and uncertainty
→ useful output
→ provenance and next questions

The Worked examples use this pattern explicitly. The Learning pathway turns it into a sequence for building capability.

Useful next steps​

Last reviewed: 4 September 2026

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