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This session explores the ethical and practical challenges of representing Indigenous knowledge within Wikimedia and other open digital knowledge systems. While Indigenous and minority languages are increasingly being brought onto platforms such as Wikimedia, the underlying model of open, text-based knowledge often conflicts with Indigenous ways of knowing. Across Oceania, knowledge is predominantly oral, relational, and governed by cultural protocols that do not easily translate into freely editable digital systems. Using Samoan and Māori examples, this presentation examines what can be lost when oral traditions are transformed into written, publicly accessible content. It questions whether all knowledge should be openly available and considers the tensions between open-access principles and Indigenous Cultural and Intellectual Property (ICIP), data sovereignty, and culturally grounded consent practices such as free, prior, and informed consent. The session also explores the growing role of AI and speech-to-text technologies in language documentation and revitalisation. While these tools may support accessibility and preservation for low-resource languages, they also raise concerns around bias, dataset ownership, and the extraction of Indigenous knowledge without community control. Participants will gain practical frameworks for ethically engaging with Indigenous content on Wikimedia, including community-led approaches, ethical contribution practices, and alternative models such as audio-based archives and tiered knowledge access systems.
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