Indigenous data sovereignty

Abstract

Indigenous peoples have long recognised storytelling as a vital mechanism for transmitting knowledge, culture, and identity (Hodge, Pasqua, Marquez, & Geishirt-Cantrell, 2002; Rani & Raj, 2023). Yet across colonised nations, the power to shape and share Indigenous stories – particularly in children’s literature – has often rested in the hands of non-Indigenous creators and institutions (Barnwell, 2021; Hampton & DeMartini, 2017). This lecture explores the concept of story sovereignty in the context of Māori children’s picturebooks, asking: What happens when Indigenous peoples reclaim authorship and editorial control over our own narratives for children? Drawing on doctoral research that includes data from research conversations with Indigenous publishing practitioners and creative practice-based inquiry, this lecture centres on story sovereignty as both a conceptual and practical framework for reclaiming control over Indigenous narratives (Sium & Ritskes, 2013; Whiteduck, 2013). It critically examines the power dynamics embedded in the publishing industry, where Indigenous voices and ways of knowing continue to be marginalised (Sengupta, 2023). At the same time, it highlights the transformative potential of story sovereignty – where Māori exercise tino rangatiratanga (self-determination) over our stories, determining which stories we want to tell, how we tell them, and who we tell them to (Whiteduck, 2013). Findings suggest that Indigenous-led creation of picturebooks can be a powerful act of resistance and resurgence – cultivating cultural memory, promoting wellbeing, and contributing to the realisation of mana motuhake (control over one’s destiny) and tino rangatiratanga (Sium & Ritskes, 2013; Sengupta, 2023). Through an Indigenous lens, this lecture explores the significance of story sovereignty in children’s publishing and argues that reclaiming narrative power is not only a political act, but also a vital expression of cultural survival and self-determination (Hampton & DeMartini, 2017).