diff --git a/aws/_modules/eks/node_pool.tf b/aws/_modules/eks/node_pool.tf
index 811f159b..71c2140a 100644
--- a/aws/_modules/eks/node_pool.tf
+++ b/aws/_modules/eks/node_pool.tf
@@ -1,4 +1,8 @@
 module "node_pool" {
+  providers = {
+    kubernetes = kubernetes.eks
+  }
+
   source = "./node_pool"
 
   metadata_labels   = var.metadata_labels
@@ -17,4 +21,10 @@ module "node_pool" {
   min_size      = var.min_size
 
   disk_size = var.root_device_volume_size
+
+  # force node_pool to depend on aws-auth configmap
+  depends-on-aws-auth = {
+    name      = kubernetes_config_map.current.metadata[0].name
+    namespace = kubernetes_config_map.current.metadata[0].namespace
+  }
 }
diff --git a/aws/_modules/eks/node_pool/main.tf b/aws/_modules/eks/node_pool/main.tf
index db678e24..d9905f56 100644
--- a/aws/_modules/eks/node_pool/main.tf
+++ b/aws/_modules/eks/node_pool/main.tf
@@ -1,3 +1,17 @@
+data "kubernetes_config_map" "aws_auth" {
+  # Force an explicit depends_on, on the configmap
+  # before creating the node pool
+  # Otherwise the aws_eks_node_group resource
+  # creates the configmap leaving TF to error
+  # out because it already exists
+
+  metadata {
+    name      = var.depends-on-aws-auth.name
+    namespace = var.depends-on-aws-auth.namespace
+  }
+}
+
+
 resource "aws_eks_node_group" "nodes" {
   cluster_name    = var.cluster_name
   node_group_name = var.node_group_name
@@ -15,4 +29,6 @@ resource "aws_eks_node_group" "nodes" {
 
   tags   = var.eks_metadata_tags
   labels = var.metadata_labels
+
+  depends_on = [data.kubernetes_config_map.aws_auth]
 }
diff --git a/aws/_modules/eks/node_pool/variables.tf b/aws/_modules/eks/node_pool/variables.tf
index b9dd0421..8089f796 100644
--- a/aws/_modules/eks/node_pool/variables.tf
+++ b/aws/_modules/eks/node_pool/variables.tf
@@ -53,3 +53,8 @@ variable "subnet_ids" {
   type        = list(string)
   description = "List of VPC subnet IDs to use for nodes."
 }
+
+variable "depends-on-aws-auth" {
+  type        = map(string)
+  description = "Used as a depends_on shim to first create the aws-auth configmap before creating the node_pool."
+}