Abstract
This article examines the ethical dimensions of digitizing and providing access to Indigenous oral traditions within digital archives, focusing on developments in the 2020s. Employing a qualitative case study approach, we analyze three digital archive projects involving Indigenous communities in North America and the Pacific: the Mukurtu CMS platform, the Plateau Peoples’ Web Portal, and the Ara Irititja project. Drawing on interviews with archivists, community members, and Indigenous scholars, as well as policy documents and metadata analysis, we identify key ethical challenges including intellectual property rights, cultural protocols, community consent, and the risk of extractive practices. Our findings reveal that while digital archives offer opportunities for cultural revitalization and community control, they also perpetuate colonial dynamics if not co-designed with Indigenous communities. We propose a framework for ethical digital archiving grounded in Indigenous data sovereignty, relational accountability, and iterative consent. The article contributes to scholarship on cultural heritage, digital humanities, and Indigenous studies by providing empirically grounded guidance for practitioners. We conclude that ethical access requires ongoing negotiation, capacity-building within communities, and structural changes in funding and institutional policies.
Keywords
digital archives, Indigenous oral traditions, ethical access, cultural heritage, data sovereignty, community consent, digital humanities, Indigenous studies