Part 1: Authority & Sovereignty — Whose Data Is This?

from Relational Science Hosted by WN. Flores and Sierra Hicks

What does it mean to have authority over your data — not just ownership, co-ownership, but the living right to say who uses it, how, and when to stop? In this first part of the episode, WarīNkwī Flores and Sierra Hicks welcome Lisa Pizzoni, founder of the Indigenous Data Authority (Aotearoa, New Zealand), into the circle. Together they explore the distinction between sovereignty (the right to govern data) and authority (the active permission over it) — a difference that carries profound implications for Indigenous Peoples navigating AI, digital infrastructure, and cross-jurisdictional data flows. From the moko on a son's face captured by a security camera to tukutuku panels in a wharenui — this conversation grounds big-tech policy questions in the relational truth that data is never neutral, but also not only an asset. It is always whakapapa. It is always connected.