Digital Stewardship and the Governance of Intangible Heritage: A West African Framework for the Seychelles,

The digital preservation of intangible cultural heritage (ICH) presents distinct governance challenges for small island developing states, which often lack frameworks that integrate local stewardship practices with digital archiving. This is particularly acute in contexts where ICH is predominantly oral and performative. This working paper aims to develop a culturally responsive governance framework for digital ICH stewardship. It seeks to adapt principles from West African models of communal custodianship to the specific socio-technical context of the Seychelles, addressing gaps in current digital heritage policy. The research employs a comparative policy analysis and a qualitative case study design. Data were gathered through document analysis of existing heritage policies and in-depth, semi-structured interviews with key informants, including heritage practitioners, digital archivists, and community knowledge holders. Analysis identified a predominant theme of 'mediated access' as central to local stewardship ethics. A significant finding is that over two-thirds of interviewees emphasised the necessity of embedding contextual metadata and usage protocols within digital archives to preserve the socio-cultural meaning of heritage elements, not just their content. The study concludes that effective digital heritage governance requires frameworks that formally recognise and integrate indigenous stewardship logics, moving beyond technical preservation to address the management of meaning and access in digital environments. Policymakers should develop a national digital heritage charter that mandates community co-design of metadata schemas and access protocols. Training programmes for digital archivists in participatory methods and ethical curation are also essential. intangible cultural heritage, digital stewardship, governance, archival metadata, community participation, cultural policy This paper provides a novel analytical framework that synthesises West African custodial models with digital curation theory, offering a new policy mechanism for the governance of ICH in digital repositories.