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Rowasu'u is a digital archives project that seeks to reunite A'uwẽ-Xavante individuals with researcher produced documentation of their ancestors, families, bodies, culture, and homelands and eventually provide a platform for the collection and preservation of community knowledge. A'uwẽ-Xavante have a long history of receiving academic researchers including anthropologists, geneticists, biomedical researchers, ecologists, and linguists, but they have had limited access to the documentation and other data produced through these encounters. The Rowasu'u project is working with scholars to compile and make accessible records of more than 60 years of decentralized academic research while partnering with A'uwẽ-Xavante communities historically positioned as the most prominent participants. Our larger aspiration is that in addition to supporting A'uwẽ-Xavante efforts to reclaim their history as recorded by scientists, Rowasu'u will advance Indigenous research governance and data sovereignty as human rights applicable to past as well as future research. This chapter discusses our early progress in developing Rowasu'u using Mukurtu CMS, including the challenges and complexities inherent in navigating local politics in the context of generations of marginalization and exclusion. 

Abstract: Rowasu'u is a digital archives project that seeks to reunite A'uwẽ-Xavante individuals with researcher produced documentation of their ancestors, families, bodies, culture, and homelands and eventually provide a platform for the collection and preservation of community knowledge. A'uwẽ-Xavante have a long history of receiving academic researchers including anthropologists, geneticists, biomedical researchers, ecologists, and linguists, but they have had limited access to the documentation and other data produced through these encounters. The Rowasu'u project is working with scholars to compile and make accessible records of more than 60 years of decentralized academic research while partnering with A'uwẽ-Xavante communities historically positioned as the most prominent participants. Our larger aspiration is that in addition to supporting A'uwẽ-Xavante efforts to reclaim their history as recorded by scientists, Rowasu'u will advance Indigenous research governance and data sovereignty as human rights applicable to past as well as future research. This chapter discusses our early progress in developing Rowasu'u using Mukurtu CMS, including the challenges and complexities inherent in navigating local politics in the context of generations of marginalization and exclusion.