Resumen de Affective encounters with digital knowledge collections: Towards supporting Indigenous wellbeing

Ailsa Lipscombe, Chern Li Liew

• Building on discussions in the Information Sciences on responsibility and decolonizing digitization, we empha size how cultural context is key, not only for understanding ma ̄ tauranga Ma ̄ori [Ma ̄ori Indigenous knowledge], but also for ethically and compassionately caring for such knowledges in Aotearoa New Zealand. Our ko ̄ rero [dialogues] with Ma ̄ori 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 ma ̄ tauranga Ma ̄ori 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.