Indigenous Data Sovereignty: How Scientists and Researchers Can Empower Indigenous Data Governance

Like other nation states, Indigenous nations need data about their citizens and communities to make informed decisions. However, the information that Indigenous nations have access to is often unreliable, inaccurate, and irrelevant. Federal, state, and local governments as well as researchers have primarily collected these data with limited input from Indigenous nations. Indigenous nations' reliance on external data that do not reflect community needs, priorities, and self-conceptions is a threat to self-determination, limits informed policy decisions, and restricts progress toward Indigenous aspirations for healthy and sustainable communities. Indigenous data sovereignty is the right of Indigenous peoples and nations to govern the collection, ownership, and application of data about Indigenous communities, peoples, lands, and resources. Indigenous nations have the right to govern the data about them, regardless of where it is held and by whom. They also hold the right to the generation of the data Indigenous peoples require to support decision-making for sustainable & healthy communities. Over the past three years, within this framework, Indigenous data sovereignty has become a movement both within Indigenous communities and globally within research and Open Data realms. Activities range from raising awareness and action within Indigenous nations to instituting Indigenous data governance principles and protocols when conducting research. Researchers and other governments' reliance on existing data and data governance practices limit the robustness of data-driven research and the validity of policy decisions. At the same time, researchers, data repositories, and data service operations are increasingly aware of the need to understand Indigenous data sovereignty in order to choose data governance and stewardship mechanisms that align with Indigenous rights and aspirations. However, these individuals and organizations do not always know the appropriate processes. This session will be led by Indigenous scholars from the University of Arizona and Colorado State University, and will engage researchers in an interactive discussion focused on applying an Indigenous data sovereignty framework to research and data.