Affective encounters with digital knowledge collections: Towards supporting Indigenous wellbeing

Abstract

Building on discussions in the Information Sciences on responsibility and decolonizing digitization, we emphasize how cultural context is key, not only for understanding mātauranga Māori [Māori Indigenous knowledge], but also for ethically and compassionately caring for such knowledges in Aotearoa New Zealand. Our kōrero [dialogues] with Māori archival users highlight the intricate ways digital knowledge collections are embedded within—and accessed through—webs of social practices, including those that support intergenerational knowledge transmission, whanaugatanga [kinship] and turangawaewae [one's connection to self through place]. We introduce the concept of “awhi”—meaning to support, cherish, or nurture—to frame the ethical archiving of mātauranga Māori in Aotearoa New Zealand. We contend that awhi is an interpersonal invitation to center dynamic relational partnerships, guided in the Aotearoa context by the tikanga [customary practices or behaviors], kawa [protocols], and whanonga pono [values] that our communities find meaningful.