Defending data from digital colonisation with a game

A game devised by Sequoia Short explores the challenges of digital colonialism. PHOTO: SAM HENDERSON

A portable game in a plastic tub is teaching players how to protect their personal information from the prying eyes of artificial intelligence.

Escape Room: Data Guardians has been devised by University of Otago teaching fellow and PhD student Sequoia Short (Ngaati Maniapoto, Ngaati Apakura, Waikato-Tainui, Ngāti Toa Rangatira). It uses questions, puzzles and challenges to provide insights and understanding of taonga Māori and issues such as data sovereignty.

"I pack it all into, you know, like a 70-litre plastic tub and wheel it around from schools to marae to boardrooms," Miss Short said.

During the session, participants solve riddles to unlock a series of boxes and portable safes while gaining culturally grounded education.

They act as "spies" who have been sent by mana whenua to retrieve stolen property, data or treasures.

"You have to solve the series of puzzles to be able to retrieve those things.

"The different puzzles are based on the different taonga, so the different data that is important to indigenous people, so whether that be te reo Māori, our native animals, our biological data."

The experience highlights how corporations and artificial intelligence platforms harvest information without clear consent. Information was not just numbers on a screen but included indigenous intellectual property such as waiata (songs), tā moko (traditional tattoos) and mātauranga, the traditional understanding of how mana whenua use plants in art or in medicine.

"Harakeke, obviously, is used throughout our art, as well as throughout medicine, so all of those things are indigenous cultural intellectual property," she said.

That knowledge was collectively owned by tangata whenua and was vulnerable to corporate exploitation. The practice could be seen as a new type of colonisation where Māori were at risk of losing control over their own information.

"They came and they took our land and they tried to take our language, they tried to swallow our community, but of course they were unsuccessful, at least in some of those things.

"And the next frontier of colonisation is our knowledge, which is really what we are at risk of losing here."

Miss Short will be hosting two iterations of the game as part of the New Zealand International Science Festival’s Nanofest programme taking place in Dunedin next month.

One event is designed for children, teens and families and the other is tailored towards adults such as students or professionals. The concept unpacked deep issues, but it was also fun.

"Some people will come to escape rooms, my sessions, because they love escape rooms; others will come because they are interested in the topic.

"It is funny, I think, especially when you get to the game and you see some excellent things come out, some great teamwork, your competitive people really shine through."