<p>The mainstream narrative about open data excludes any consideration of Indigenous voices. Instead, there is primarily Western rhetoric reiterating the benefits and advantages it provides for society. The discussion fails to recognise the negative impact open data can have on Indigenous peoples. This paper explores the problem of open data in digital repositories and discusses why open data is harmful in the development of Indigenous natural language processing tools. It begins with a brief introduction to open data before examining the negative impact that open data has on Indigenous peoples by describing what data is collected, how data is collected, who has access to the data and what the data is used for. The paper then offers an alternative solution to reach an ideal state for good data sharing by drawing on the experiences of Te Reo Irirangi o Te Hiku o te Ika (Te Hiku Media), a tribal media hub based in Aotearoa New Zealand. It provides an example of how a small Indigenous community-based organisation collects, stores, and protects its data.</p>