Indigenous Rights and Data Sovereignty: A story of success and community

Keoni Mahelona and Peter-Lucas Jones on Indigenous Data Sovereignty, March 3, 2021.

In the era of big data, it is difficult to know our privacy rights and how our information is being used. Hosted by the Feminist and Accessible Publishing, Communications, and Technology Speaker and Workshop Series and by the Initiative for Indigenous Futures , I attended the workshop by Keoni Mahelona and Peter-Lucas Jones speaking on Indigenous Data Sovereignty through their roles at Te Hiku Media in New Zealand. 

Te Hiku Media is a charitable media organization coming from Far North Iwi (regions) of Ngāti Kuri, Te Aupouri, Ngai Takoto, Te Rārawa and Ngāti Kahu in New Zealand. The organization creates ways for members of these regions who are living away from traditional territories to access their culture and historical knowledge through radio, online television, and other media. Like many Indigenous groups, these regions are struggling with the decline of their historical language, Maori. On top of the fantastic cultural preservation and revitalization efforts, Tehiku Media decided to tackle this issue as well. “Language provides a gateway into the mind of our people. It is imbued with cultural memory and ideological thought. [Language holds] all of the things that inform our world view. When we lose a word in our language, we lose a part of our culture” states Peter-Lucus Jones, Te Hiku Media Manager. 

All current language processing giants in big media such as Duo Lingo and Google have methods available to record and process new languages at little to no cost, however there is a catch: the data you share with these companies is no longer yours, and can be sold as they see fit.

“To have our language stolen from us by the colonizers through generations of abuse and residential schools, and then for them to turn around and sell it back to us?… We couldn’t do this. It wasn’t right” explained speaker Keoni Mahelona.

Rather than turning to these companies, Te Hiku Media decided to take matters into their own hands. For the past 30 years, they have collected recordings from many Maori speaking elders, paying special attention to specific dialects that are not well recorded. Through these datasets, Te Hiku was able to create programs which store language, and eventually were able to build their own Maori speech-recognition software. The goals for this project were to maintain sovereignty, make the Maori language more ubiquitous, and promote language and culture. 

A major challenge in this data sovereignty journey was the choice to license the data. Maori historically does not include the concept of ownership, however, if the data isn’t licensed there is potential for a corporation to steal it. The difficult decision to license the data was ultimately made, and the communities have entrusted guardianship of this data to Te Hiku Media for safekeeping. 

In order to hear more about Te Hiku Media’s preservation of Maori culture, take a look at their website at https://tehiku.nz/

A recording of this discussion is available. Access it here: https://www.feministandaccessiblepublishingandtechnology.com/p/videos.html

Fall 2020 Workshops from the Digital Scholarship Hub

Did you know that the Library offers free online workshops to help with your research?

The Digital Scholarship Hub at the McGill Library is proud to present its Fall 2020 Workshop Schedule. This semester we are offering 27 interactive workshops and lively discussions on artificial intelligence, research data management, digital scholarship tools, scholarly communications, and more!

Workshops are listed on our Digital Scholarship Hub’s calendar and the Library’s workshops page. Some of the offerings include:


Introduction to Research Data Management

Tuesday, October 6, 2:00pm (Eastern)

Register

This workshop will provide attendees with an overview of the best practices for efficiently managing data during the research process. Just like project management, implementing effective research data management (RDM) practices is an important way to save time, stay organized, and ensure that your research process and results are reproducible; a cornerstone of robust research. Attendees will participate in hands-on activities to learn about file naming conventions, file formats, and metadata. We will also briefly introduce related topics such as documentation (e.g. README files) and the preservation and storage of data over time. Towards the end of the session, there will also be time to ask questions and discuss RDM in the context of your own discipline. 


First Steps in the Digital Humanities

Friday, October 16, 2:00pm (Eastern)

Register

Are you interested in exploring the exciting field of Digital Humanities but having trouble figuring out where to start? This session is for you. Designed for newcomers to DH, it will help you to orient yourself it this “expanded field” by understanding its history and key related concepts, as well as set you up for understanding how you might approach getting started with a digital project with or without technical expertise.

Introduction to Digital Privacy & Tools

Wednesday, October 28, 2:00pm (Eastern)

Register

This workshop will be of interest to those who want to learn more about online privacy, our personal data, how it is collected, and its potential uses. This will be a venue for reflection and discussion, with an overview at the end of some of the tools at our disposal to help us safeguard our privacy.


We also offer support for digital research projects of McGill faculty, students, and staff tailored to their research needs. Contact us to schedule an appointment with one of our experts.

Questions? Contact us at dshub.library@mcgill.ca.