Pacific Data Sovereignty Network

The Pacific Data Sovereignty Network (PDSN) is Aotearoa New Zealand's organizing network for data sovereignty of Pacific peoples, established on November 29, 2019, at an inaugural seminar in Manukau, Auckland. The network operates on the principle that "nothing about Pacific peoples is done without Pacific peoples," asserting that data produced about Pasifika communities in Aotearoa must be governed by those communities — that "data is the new land." Since 2021 the network has operated under the formal governance structure of the Pacific Data Sovereignty Trust. It is a member network of the Global Indigenous Data Alliance and, alongside the Te Mana Raraunga Māori Data Sovereignty Network, constitutes one of Aotearoa New Zealand's two Indigenous and Pacific data sovereignty anchors in the global IDSov movement.

Founding

The PDSN emerged from a November 2019 seminar convened to establish a unified Pacific voice in New Zealand's national data collection, interpretation, and governance systems. At the seminar, Professor 'Ana Taufe'ulungaki articulated the network's animating principle: "Data sovereignty is not just about ownership of the collection, storage, retrieval, accessibility, application, and dissemination of individual groups and cultural information. It is about taking charge of our destiny." The network was formally incorporated as the Pacific Data Sovereignty Trust in 2021, moving from a seminar collective to a governance body with standing partnerships with Statistics New Zealand and the Ministry for Pacific Peoples.

Structure

The Trust is led by a twelve-member independent committee drawn from across the Pacific network, with ex-officio representation from the Ministry for Pacific Peoples and Statistics New Zealand. Moana Connect serves as the secretariat, managing coordination, research, and community engagement. Chairperson Ivan Tava leads the committee; Dr. Jacinta Fa'alili-Fidow serves as Chief Executive. The broader network comprises 36 member organizations spanning research institutions, health organizations, universities, and government agencies. An Expert Advisory Group — including Professor El-Shadan Tautolo, Dr. Polly Atoatoa-Carr, Dr. Sam Manuela, Dr. Falaniko Tominiko, Dr. Gerard Sonder, Dr. Debbie Ryan, and Loata Tiapapa — provides technical and strategic guidance.

Principles

The PDSN is governed by seven core principles: prioritizing Pacific peoples' rights, values, and knowledge; upholding Pacific authority and autonomy in data decision-making; building authentic relationships and engagement with Pacific communities; pursuing collective action for equitable outcomes; maintaining integrity and ethical practice; influencing policy and practice; and enabling community collaboration. The network draws on Pacific conceptual frameworks — Fonofale, Tivaevae, Kakala, Fa'afaletui, Turanga Māori, and the Pacific Health Research Council Guidelines — rather than importing governance models from non-Pacific contexts, paralleling Te Mana Raraunga's grounding in tikanga-derived principles.

AI Turn

In July 2025, the PDSN and Moana Connect published Preserving our Heritage in the Light of Innovation — a report examining the implications of AI for Pacific data sovereignty — funded by Te Tītoki Mataora | MedTech Research Translator. The report was developed through workshops bringing together Pacific data experts, technologists, community leaders, and cultural practitioners, covering the potential benefits of AI for Pacific communities, areas of concern around extractive use of Pacific cultural knowledge, key priorities, and actionable recommendations for sectors working with Pacific peoples. The framing positions Pacific communities not merely as subjects of AI systems but as governors of the conditions under which those systems may engage with Pacific data and culture.

GIDA and International Network

The PDSN is a member network of the Global Indigenous Data Alliance and participated in GIDA's February 25–27, 2026 IDSov and AI Workshop in Texcoco, Mexico. The workshop brought together representatives from Te Mana Raraunga, Maiam nayri Wingara, the US Indigenous Data Sovereignty Network, the First Nations Information Governance Centre, GIDA-Inuit, and GIDA-Sápmi alongside scholars and activists from Latin America and Africa to develop community-specific protocols for engaging with AI that uphold Indigenous data sovereignty principles. PDSN's participation extends the IDSov framework's AI governance work into the specific context of Pacific peoples, whose cultural knowledge and oral traditions face particular risks from AI systems trained on digitized heritage collections without community consent.

Corpus Role

The PDSN anchors the corpus's Pacific-peoples data sovereignty slot — a layer distinct from Māori data sovereignty (org-te-mana-raraunga) and from the broader international IDSov movement (org-global-indigenous-data-alliance). Both Te Mana Raraunga and the PDSN are Aotearoa-based but operate under different legal and cultural frameworks: Te Mana Raraunga grounds its claims in Te Tiriti o Waitangi, while the PDSN asserts Pacific-peoples' governance rights grounded in Pacific conceptual frameworks and New Zealand's obligations to its Pacific diaspora communities. The July 2025 AI report makes the connection to the make-AI-good movement explicit: Pacific communities are asserting governance rights over AI systems that will increasingly use data about them, and the PDSN is the institutional mechanism for channeling those community voices into national policy.