Māori GIS papers and research
This is a practical reading list rather than a bibliography dump. Each item is included because it helps with a recurring Māori GIS question.
Building iwi and hapū GIS
Pacey, Huia. The benefits and barriers to GIS for Māori (2005)
Lincoln University research record
Useful for iwi/hapū capability leads and people planning a GIS programme. The thesis remains valuable historical evidence about cost, access, organisational capability and the opportunities Māori saw in GIS during an earlier phase of the technology.
Harmsworth, Park and Walker. Development and use of GIS for iwi and hapū: Motueka case study (2005)
Original Manaaki Whenua report
Useful for environmental teams and programme designers because it documents actual iwi/hapū GIS work rather than an abstract model.
Cultural mapping and landscape
Hakopa, Hauiti. The Paepae: Spatial information technologies and the geography of narratives (2011)
University of Otago research record
Useful for cultural mapping and historical researchers interested in the relationship between narratives, place and spatial technology.
Hakopa, Jackson, Mita and Cunningham. Te Koronga: Mapping case studies (2017)
Published in the open-access University of Waikato book He Whare Hangarau Māori.
Useful for rangatahi, researchers and training facilitators because it documents several Māori mapping cases and the use of mapping as an applied research method.
Apiti, Moka. The Indigenous Mapping Waananga 2017
Also in He Whare Hangarau Māori.
Useful for people designing GIS capability programmes. It records a large hands-on Indigenous mapping wānanga and the importance of exposing participants to several technology choices rather than one prescribed platform.
Forster and Meihana. Pouwhenua: Marking and storying the ancestral landscape (2023)
Useful for cultural landscape and cartography work. The paper explores Māori practices for naming, marking and storying tribal landscapes and explicitly discusses ethical mapping.
Community spatial planning
Walker et al. Te Kete Kōrero o Ōhinemutu: the story of a cultural mapping tool (2026)
Useful for marae/village planning, council planners and researchers. It documents the co-creation of a geospatial tool for Ōhinemutu spatial planning rather than treating community knowledge as a layer added at the end of a conventional planning project.
Taiao and marine mapping
Paul-Burke et al. Mapping Māori knowledge to inform marine management futures (2020)
Available in the open-access New Zealand Science Review volume on Māori data and science.
Useful for marine and taiao teams working across mapped evidence, mātauranga and management questions.
Māori data
Te Mana Raraunga. Māori Data Sovereignty Charter
Useful to organisational data leads and GIS practitioners designing storage, access and reuse arrangements.
Hudson et al. He Matapihi ki te Mana Raraunga
Useful background for thinking about spatial information as part of a wider Māori data environment rather than a special category isolated from other organisational data.
Longer publication list
The existing Māori mapping and GIS publications page retains a longer citation list. This page is the shorter audience-oriented reading path.
Last reviewed: 26 August 2026
Move from reading to doing
Pair the papers with Māori GIS projects to see current implementations, Historical research for documentary workflows and Videos and presentations for practical demonstrations.