The author became familiar with the work of Paulo Freire while studying at university in the 1980s in Aotearoa/New Zealand. At the time she was involved in a community development project where groups of solo mothers were brought together to be politicised. She then became involved in the anti-racism movement and in international aid and development. The term "self-determination" was widely used in both these areas, particularly by indigenous peoples. By the early 1990s, she decided to focus on self-determination in her work as a community development worker and adult educator so she could incorporate her learnings from Freire's writings with her experience in indigenous people's movements. She defined self-determination as the ability of people/s to name, create and control their own history. In this definition, the "self" of self-determination refers to groups of people. This implies a necessity to accept differences among groups and to design structures and methods of negotiating physical, social and cultural boundaries. In this article, the author provides meanings of self-determination in relation to four major groupings: (1) individuals; (2) groups of individuals such as women and refugees; (3) nations; and (4) indigenous peoples. She also discusses the limits of the concept of self-determination as a focus in community development work.