data collection

Indigenous Data Sovereignty and Policy

Year

This book examines how Indigenous Peoples around the world are demanding greater data sovereignty, and challenging the ways in which governments have historically used Indigenous data to develop policies and programs. In the digital age, governments are increasingly dependent on data and data analytics to inform their policies and decision-making. However, Indigenous Peoples have often been the unwilling targets of policy interventions and have had little say over the collection, use and application of data about them, their lands and cultures. At the heart of Indigenous Peoples’ demands for change are the enduring aspirations of self-determination over their institutions, resources, knowledge and information systems. With contributors from Australia, Aotearoa New Zealand, North and South America and Europe, this book offers a rich account of the potential for Indigenous data sovereignty to support human flourishing and to protect against the ever-growing threats of data-related risks and harms.

Download individual chapters

 

Resource Type
Citation

Walter, M. (Ed.), Kukutai, T. (Ed.), Carroll, S. (Ed.), Rodriguez-Lonebear, D. (Ed.). (2021). Indigenous Data Sovereignty and Policy. London: Routledge, https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429273957

Operationalizing the CARE Principles for Indigenous Data Governance Webinar

Year

Presented by:

Stephanie R. Carroll, Assistant Professor and Associate Director of the Native Nations Institute, University of Arizona
Jane Anderson, Associate Professor, Department of Anthropology and Museum Studies, New York University

Extractive and unethical research practices led to the accumulation of Indigenous collections in vast national repositories that have missing, incomplete, and impoverished records and metadata. These problems of inequity continue in the ways Indigenous Peoples’ data is created, stored, accessed, and used. Indigenous Peoples insist on the urgent need to integrate Indigenous knowledges and approaches into data and collections practices and policies. The articulation of Indigenous Peoples’ rights and interests in data about their peoples, communities, cultures, and territories is directed towards reclaiming control of data, data ecosystems, and data narratives in the context of open data and open science.

The people and purpose-oriented CARE Principles (Collective Benefit, Authority to Control, Responsibility, and Ethics) reflect the crucial role of data in advancing innovation, governance, and self-determination among Indigenous Peoples. The CARE Principles complement and extend the more data-centric approach of the FAIR Principles (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable). This webinar will focus on the CARE Principles and identify practical tools for implementing the CARE Principles alongside the FAIR Principles in the context of the open science and open data environments. It will include a discussion of how specific mechanisms, like the Traditional Knowledge (TK) and Biocultural (BC) Labels and Notice system, function as examples of practical tools that actively support the adoption and implementation of CARE across institutions, data repositories, and within research communities.

This webinar will be of interest to those working with Indigenous data or collections, as well as metadata librarians and those interested in open access policies and managing institutional repository services.

Resource Type
Citation

Carroll, Stephanie Russo, Jane Anderson. “Operationalizing the CARE Principles for Indigenous Data Governance” Webinar. Hosted by OCLC. August 11, 2020.

Policy Brief: Indigenous Data Sovereignty in Arizona: Setting an Agenda

Year

Indigenous data sovereignty asserts the rights of Native nations and Indigenous Peoples to govern the collection, ownership, and application of their own data. Indigenous data sovereignty derives from tribes’ inherent right to govern their peoples, lands, and resources. In the United States and internationally, Indigenous data sovereignty has grown in recognition and action over the past five years. Defining a strategy for enhancing Indigenous data sovereignty for tribes in Arizona is needed in order to support tribal rights and interests in data.

Resource Type
Citation

Stephanie Russo Carroll and Andrew Martinez. 2019. Policy Brief: Indigenous Data Sovereignty in Arizona. Tucson: Native Nations Institute, University of Arizona and Inter Tribal Council of Arizona

CARE Principles for Indigenous Data Governance

Year

Los Principios CREA para la Gobernanza de Datos Indigenas

The increasing convergence of technology infrastructure and digital connectivity has raised the value of data across the globe. Whether existing knowledge is digitised or new data are ‘born digital’, the impact they have on decision-making, allocation of resources, and innovation is significant. Data have important implications for Indigenous Peoples’ ability to exercise their individual and collective rights to self-determination. Indigenous Peoples are often excluded from decision-making fora and their knowledge marginalised when such knowledge exists only as part of an oral tradition. The UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) reaffirms Indigenous rights to self-governance and authority to control their Indigenous cultural heritage embedded in their languages, knowledge, practices, technologies, natural resources, and territories (i.e., Indigenous data). Indigenous data, which include data collected by governments and institutions about Indigenous Peoples and their territories, are intrinsic to Indigenous Peoples’ capacity and capability to realise their human rights and responsibilities to all of creation.

Resource Type
Citation

Research Data Alliance International Indigenous Data Sovereignty Interest Group. (September 2019). “CARE Principles for Indigenous Data Governance.” The Global Indigenous Data Alliance. GIDA-global.org

Tribal Data Governance and Informational Privacy: Constructing "Indigenous Data Sovereignty"

Year

There is a growing movement among Indigenous peoples to assert aright to “Indigenous data sovereignty,” and yet, the term “data sovereignty” is not widely understood. What does it mean to control the collection, useand management of information in an era of “Big Data,” in which digital technology transforms knowledge into electronic form, to be freely used and traded, and, sometimes even commodified? More importantly, what arethe interests of Native nations and other Indigenous peoples in these topics? Is political status tied to governance authority? If so, who controls the termsof data sovereignty—the Indigenous nation or the nation-state?

Resource Type
Citation

Rebecca Tsosie,Tribal Data Governance and Informational Privacy: Constructing "Indigenous Data Sovereignty", 80 Mont. L. Rev. 229(2019).

First Peoples Lost: Determining the State of Status First Nations Mortality in Canada Using Administrative Data

Year

We present the most comprehensive set of estimates to date for status First Nations mortality in Canada. We use administrative data from Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada to establish a set of stylized facts regarding status First Nations mortality rates. Between 2010 to 2013, the mortality rates of status First Nations men and boys are highest in nearly all age groups of status First Nations considered, with the exception of status girls between the ages of 10 to 14. On reserve, status boys between the ages of 15 to 19 have mortality rates nearly four times that in the general population, while status girls between the ages of 15 to 19 have mortality rates five times that in the general population. We demonstrate substantial regional variation in mortality rates. Finally, we document that there has been no improvement in mortality among status women and girls living on reserve in the last 30 years and relative mortality rates for all status people on reserve has not changed in 40 years.

Native Nations
Resource Type
Citation

Donna Feir & Randall Akee, 2018. "First People Lost: Determining the State of Status First Nations Mortality in Canada Using Administrative Data," Department Discussion Papers 1802, Department of Economics, University of Victoria.

Indigenous Data Sovereignty Panel IDSOV Summit Arizona 2019

Producer
Native Nations Institute
Year

Native scholars working to advance the research on indigenous data sovereignty give their perspectives on the issues facing Native communities around data collection and date use. Dr. Jameson D. Lopez (Fort Yuma Quechan (Kwatsáan) Indian Tribe), Carmenlita Chief (Navajo Nation), and Dr. Tennille Marley (White Mountain Apache Tribe) all share examples on what they have witnessed and experienced as Native researchers and scholars in applying the considerations for data sovereignty in their work and their communities.

More resources about indigenous data sovereignty can be found on the Collaboratory for Indigenous Data Governance.

Resource Type
Citation

Native Nations Institute. "Indigenous Data Sovereignty Panel IDSOV Summit Arizona 2019" IDSOV Summit Arizona. Tempe, Arizona. April 24, 2019

Transcript available upon request. Please email: nni@email.arizona.edu

Genomic Research Through an Indigenous Lens: Understanding the Expectations

Year

Indigenous scholars are leading initiatives to improve access to genetic and genomic research and health care based on their unique cultural contexts and within sovereign-based governance models created and accepted by their peoples. In the past, Indigenous peoples’ engagement with genomic research was hampered by a lack of standardized guidelines and institutional partnerships, resulting in group harms. This article provides a comparative analysis of research guidelines from Canada, New Zealand, Australia, and the United States that pertain to Indigenous peoples. The goals of the analysis are to identify areas that need attention, support Indigenous-led governance, and promote the development of a model research policy framework for genomic research and health care that has international relevance for Indigenous peoples.

Resource Type
Citation
Garrison, N. A., Hudson, M., Ballantyne, L. L., Garba, I., Martinez, A., Taualii, M., . . . Rainie, S. C. (2019). Genomic Research Through an Indigenous Lens: Understanding the Expectations. Annual Review of Genomics and Human Genetics, 20(1). doi:10.1146/annurev-genom-083118-015434

Indigenous Data Sovereignty: Global Progression

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On May 18, 2018 at the Native American and Indigenous Studies Association (NAISA) Conference in Los Angeles, six leading scholars discussed the landscape and global opportunities and challenges Indigenous peoples face in the growing Indigenous data sovereignty movement. The presentations provided updates from the six nation-states represented and collaborative work internationally. The panel revealed the need for a shift toward Indigenous data governance as a means to Indigenous data sovereignty, and the challenges when Indigenous peoples do not have formal government-to-government recognition from the nation-states in which they share a geography and when Indigenous peoples' live in extremely rural locations.

Panelist included were;

Chairs: Stephanie Carroll Rainie, University of Arizona, United States / Maggie Walter, University of Tasmania, Australia

Presenters: Per Axelsson - Umeå University, Sweden / Maui Hudson, University of Waikato, Aotearoa / Jennifer Walker, Laurentian University, Canada / Oscar Figueroa-Rodríguez, Campus Montecillo, Colegio de Postgraduados, Mexico 

More resources about indigenous data sovereignty can be found on the US Indigenous Data Sovereignty Network website.

http://usindigenousdata.arizona.edu/

Resource Type
Citation

Native Nations Institute. "Indigenous Data Sovereignty: Global Progression" Native American and Indigenous Studies (NAISA) Conference. Los Angeles, California. May 18, 2018

Transcript available upon request. Please email: nni@email.arizona.edu

Policy Brief: Indigenous Data Sovereignty in the United States

Year

We live in the information age. Governments, industries, and organizations of all kinds are claiming a right to gather information on everything from our spending habits to our health records. Data has become a global currency, a valuable asset, and a source of power. Native nations are part of this data revolution, but encounter distinctive obstacles to fully realizing the power of data.

Purpose

This policy brief is a call to action on Indigenous data sovereignty. It defines the terms “data” and “data sovereignty,” explains the data-sovereignty rights of Native nations, describes the data history of Native nations, and offers recommendations for decolonizing data and asserting Indigenous data sovereignty.

Resource Type
Citation

Rainie, Stephanie Carroll, Desi Rodriguez-Lonebear, and Andrew Martinez. 2017. Policy Brief: Indigenous Data Sovereignty in the United States. Tucson: Native Nations Institute, University of Arizona.