Māori Taonga: Curating with Consent, The Future of Indigenous Data Sovereignty

Inside museum collections around the world sit carvings, cloaks, weapons, musical instruments, bones, and names. They are labeled Māori artifacts. But for the iwi (tribes) of Aotearoa, these are not objects. They are taonga, treasures, yes, but more than that: Beings with lineage, rights, and responsibilities.

To exhibit taonga is not simply to interpret the past. It is to enter a living relationship with an ancestral presence. Museums do not own taonga. At best, they are temporary caregivers, and increasingly, digital co-stewards.

What Is Taonga?

• A whalebone pendant, passed through generations

• A waka (canoe) built from native trees

• An ancestral photograph

• A song, story, language, or landscape

These are not static “heritage items.” They are living vessels of whakapapa (genealogy), wairua (spirit), and mana (authority). Museums often interpret taonga as “cultural artifacts.” But in Māori worldview, they are kin.

What this means for curators:

• Object-centered care must be replaced with relationship-centered stewardship

• Every exhibition is a conversation with descendants

• Display without permission is not preservation, it is dispossession

The Rise of Indigenous Data Sovereignty As museums digitize their collections, taonga are increasingly appearing online, sometimes without tribal consultation or context. This has led to a growing global movement for Indigenous data sovereignty: The right of Indigenous peoples to govern the collection, access, use, and sharing of their own cultural data, whether physical or digital.

In Aotearoa, Māori communities are developing:

1. Digital repatriation platforms that return digital copies of taonga to iwi

2. Protocols for metadata tagging that respect cultural guidelines (e.g. tapu, or sacred restrictions)

3. Community-controlled servers to house tribal data in accordance with tikanga (customary law)

This isn’t about hiding history. It’s about reframing authority.

Museums must shift:

1. From open access to controlled access

2. From extraction to partnership

3. From archival logic to ancestral logic

Whakapapa in the Cloud

Digital tools now allow taonga to reconnect with their people, even while still held in distant institutions:

• 3D scans of carvings are returned to iwi for revitalization of traditional knowledge

• Digital audio of elders is being embedded into interactive ancestral maps

• AI-driven language tools are being trained on tribal oral histories—with tribal governance

• Yet even here, technology must be accountable.

For museums, this means:

1. Consultation before digitization

2. Tribal IP protections embedded into platform design

3. Ensuring that tech amplifies Māori values, not just accessibility

4. Digitization is not neutral. It can colonize, or it can liberate.

From Kaitiaki to Co-Governance

The Māori concept of kaitiakitanga (guardianship) transforms the role of curator:

• A kaitiaki does not control taonga. They serve it

• Stewardship is reciprocal, you care for taonga, and it cares for you

• It requires permission, accountability, and often, silence

  
  

This challenges the museum to evolve:

1. Loan agreements should include cultural protocols

2. Cataloging systems should embed te reo Māori and tribal provenance

3. Governance boards must include iwi representation, not just consultation

The future of museums is not about owning stories. It’s about becoming part of them with consent. In the Māori worldview, every place of meeting, marae is sacred. As museums move toward digital spaces, they must ask: Can we design digital marae, places where taonga are not just seen, but respected?