Indigenous data sovereignty

If your research involves Indigenous Peoples, it is important to plan your data management to adhere to principles of Indigenous data sovereignty.  

What is Indigenous data sovereignty?

Indigenous data sovereignty describes the fundamental rights of Indigenous Peoples' to control, access, interpret, manage, and collectively own data about their communities, lands, and cultures. The foundations for Indigenous data sovereignty rest on ​Indigenous Peoples' inherent rights to autonomous governance. These are supported by global human rights agreements such as the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples​, as well as broad and regional frameworks such as the CARE principles and the OCAP®​ principles in Canada, described below. 

Information management and data collection strategies must align with the practices and cultures of the Indigenous Nations, communities, or Peoples who are represented in the data. Data sovereignty also means that Indigenous communities, Nations, and individuals are active partners and not subjects in the overall research process. For more details, see Chapter 1 in Walter, M., Kukutai, T., Carroll, S.R., & Rodriguez-Lonebear, D. (Eds.). (2020). Indigenous Data Sovereignty and Policy. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429273957 ​

What is Indigenous data?

It's important to note that usage of the word 'data' in this context is contested and suggests data as property, as an abstraction from ongoing relationality in the world, for example. The term 'Indigenous data' is sometimes used as shorthand for Indigenous knowledge, information, or materials, such as:

  • Data about individuals, including administrative and social information about demographics, health, employment, or education;
  • Data about collectives and communities, including Indigenous Peoples' or Nations' traditions, cultural practices, language systems, and ancestral knowledges; and 
  • Data about non-human relations, including knowledge that describes land management and history, geology, animals and wildlife, water, plants, and ecosystems.

CARE principles

The CARE Principles for Indigenous Data Governance guide the use of Indigenous data and reflect the importance of data to Indigenous self-determination:

  • Collective Benefit: Indigenous Peoples should benefit from the data and the research aligns with the needs and goals of the community.
  • Authority to Control: Indigenous Peoples have agency to make decisions regarding data governance and how they are represented in the data. Indigenous data must be accessible to Indigenous communities.
  • Responsibility: Researchers are accountable to Indigenous communities and must be able to demonstrate how their use of Indigenous data benefits the Indigenous Peoples and their self-determination. Evidence of benefits must be shared and resources must be grounded in Indigenous language and worldviews.
  • Ethics: Indigenous rights and wellbeing are central during all stages of the data lifecycle. Risk assessments must be considered from an Indigenous perspective. 

OCAP® principles 

The OCAP® principles are a set of standards to guide Indigenous data governance within the context of First Nations in Canada.

OCAP® stands for ownership, control, access, and possession:    

  • Ownership: Indigenous communities own their information in the same way that an individual would own their personal information.  
  • Control: Indigenous communities and Nations can seek control over research data and its management at all stages of the research cycle.
  • Access: Indigenous communities and Nations must be able to access data about themselves and have the right to make or be involved in decisions regarding access to the data.
  • Possession: Physical control of the data should be with the First Nation or Indigenous-controlled steward, or otherwise with a third party data steward (decided upon by the Indigenous community or Nation) who will ensure the principles of ownership, control, and access are upheld. 

Additional resources

Canada's Tri-Agency Research Data Management Policy emphasizes the importance of Indigenous data sovereignty and affirms that research data management and Indigenous data collection must be approved or developed by the Indigenous community in alignment with the CARE principles.

The First Nations Information Governance Centre provides the OCAP® training course along with other resources about Indigenous data sovereignty.

SFU Library's Indigenous Curriculum Resource Centre's Respectful Research page provides more information and resources about Indigenous intellectual property, Indigenous data, and Indigenous research methods.