Tracing Taonga Trajectories: A Methodological Framework for Indigenous Heritage Mapping

TL;DR

This paper presents a framework for mapping Indigenous heritage by tracing the history and locations of taonga collected from Rangitāhua, highlighting barriers to data access and advocating for Indigenous data sovereignty.

Contribution

The study introduces a collaborative, Indigenous-led methodological framework for tracing and mapping taonga trajectories, emphasizing data sovereignty and institutional accountability.

Findings

127 expeditions were identified that distributed 1.73 million objects from Rangitāhua across 88 institutions.

Provenance mapping successfully linked specimens to their collecting expeditions and current institutional holdings.

Institutional barriers to data access were revealed, highlighting colonial gatekeeping practices in museums.

Abstract

Rangitāhua is a tupuna to Ngāti Kuri and represents the iwi's geographic and ancestral connection to the Pacific. Despite this millennium‐long ancestral tie, Ngāti Kuri's access to Rangitāhua has been severed for two centuries. Meanwhile, many European expeditions visited the islands, extracting and distributing natural history taonga across institutions, mostly in the Northern Hemisphere. In this context of disconnection, Ngāti Kuri engaged partners to reclaim research leadership over Rangitāhua, leading to the Indigenous‐led Te Mana o Rangitāhua program, embedding Māori values and tikanga within the environmental wellbeing research project. This study is part of the program and documents our collaborative approach to identifying expeditions to Rangitāhua, mapping where their taonga and data are held worldwide, and examining institutional responses to our data requests. We identified 127 expeditions that distributed 1.73 million objects across 88 institutions. Our provenance mapping successfully cross‐linked specimens to the expeditions that collected them and the institutions that house them today. However, our research also revealed ongoing institutional barriers to data access, emphasizing colonial gatekeeping practices embedded in contemporary museology systems. We stress the urgent need for accessible and reciprocal data request systems if museum practitioners hope to advance the ultimate goal of Indigenous data sovereignty.

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