Indigenous Studies: Indigenous Data Sovereignty

Image by James Smith & Kim Robertson 

Resources Related to Indigenous Peoples

Taken from the University of Toronto

FAIR Principles - findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable

CARE Principles - collective benefit, authority to control, responsibility and ethics

What is Indigenous Data?

"In general, data are any quantitative or qualitative information about a specific topic that are collected through observation, surveys and reporting. For the purpose of this Protocol, Indigenous data is any information that is from or about any Indigenous person or their community, territory or nation, including but not limited to their languages, Knowledges, customs or traditions, intellectual property and ideas. Indigenous data are also relational and reciprocal, and need to reflect and be held by the community as a collective, and are equally as important to pass down through generations as a part of lifelong journeys of coming to be."

From Nindokiikayencikewin: to seek learning or Knowledges Indigenous Knowledges & Data Governance Protocol (pp. 10)

Resources on Indigenous Data Sovereignty

• Indigenous Innovation: Decolonizing Digital: Contextualizing Indigenous Data Sovereignty

  "This post is part of our Decolonizing Digital series where we explore the historical factors behind Indigenous Data Sovereignty. Today, we will examine early Settler-Indigenous relationships to provide a context for many of the systemic issues Indigenous Peoples still face today."

• First Nations data sovereignty in Canada

  "Drawing on historical and contemporary sources, this paper provides an overview of First Nations perspectives on efforts within the Canadian context to identify First Nations individuals, communities, and Nations in official statistics and other data and ongoing First Nations assertion of data sovereignty."

• University of Arizona: Native Nations Institute Page on Indigenous Data Sovereignty and Governance

  "Concerned by the current state of the data available for tribal and community decision making--including census, health, social services, and environment--and by Native nation’s limited control over their data, NNI researchers and a network of colleagues and collaborators are addressing the need for tribes to drive their data agendas through practicing Indigenous data sovereignty and governing their information."

• Indigenous Data Sovereignty: Toward an agenda by Tahu Kukutai and John Taylor

  Open Access book on Indigenous Data Sovereignty on JSTOR.

• Nindokiikayencikewin: toseek learningorKnowledges Indigenous Knowledges & Data Governance Protocol

  "This Protocol is based on a comprehensive literature review and the Knowledges and
  teachings from the following Elders and Knowledge Keepers from across Canada."

• ITK National Inuit Strategy on Research

  "In this time of reconciliation, research governance bodies, policies, and practices must be transformed to respect Inuit self- determination in Inuit Nunangat research."

• Open North Decolonizing Data: Indigenous Data Sovereignty Primer

  "The issue of Indigenous Data Sovereignty is central to a robust definition of data sovereignty in con-texts with a colonial past and present. This is in part due to the fact that colonial countries have, by their very essence, multiple governments functioning within them; some recognized, others not. There is a need to have well-defined relationships with the Indigenous nations whose territories fall within their asserted boundaries. Canada is only just beginning to understand the nature of nation to nation relationships with the Indigenous Nations of Canada."

• FOR UOFT USERS ONLY: Indigenous Data Sovereignty and Policy by Maggie Walter, Tahu Kukutai, Stephanie Russo Carroll, Desi Rodriguez-Lonebear

  "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."

• Indigenous Protocols [dot] art

  The materials on this website were designed to provide practical guidelines for respectful engagement with Indigenous Peoples. It is part of an ongoing initiative to strengthen respect for First Nations, Inuit, and Métis visual art and artists, and legal and moral rights in the territory now known as Canada.

Provenance Labels

Provenance Labels identify the group or sub-group that is the primary cultural authority for the material, and/or recognizes other interests in the materials.

  Provenance 

Protocol Labels

Protocol Labels outline traditional protocols associated with access to this material and invite viewers to respect community protocols.

  Protocol 

Permission Labels

Permission Labels indicate what activities the community has approved as generally acceptable. Other uses require direct engagement with primary cultural authorities.

  Permission 

Related Subject Guides 

  Māori Studies

  Pacific Studies

  Law

  NZ Statistics 

  Social Anthropology 

  Archaeology

Māori & Pacific Research at Otago University 

Research Consultation with Māori 

Research Consultation with Māori, Policy & Process 

Pacific Research Protocol

Ethics and Intellectual Property Māori 

Ethics and Intellectual Property 

WAI262 - Protecting and nurturing taonga Māori 

Intellectual Property Laws in the South Pacific: Friend or Foe? By Miranda Forsyth  (2009) 

UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples - Article 31

From the University of British Colombia

1. Indigenous peoples have the right to maintain, control, protect, and develop their cultural heritage, traditional knowledge, and traditional cultural expressions,  as well as the manifestations of their sciences,  technologies, and cultures,  including human and genetic resources,  seeds,  medicines,  knowledge of the properties of fauna and flora, oral traditions, literature, designs, sports and traditional games and visual and performing arts. They also have the right to maintain,  control,  protect, and develop their intellectual property over such cultural heritage,  traditional knowledge,  and traditional cultural expressions.

2. In conjunction with indigenous peoples, States shall take effective measures to recognize and protect the exercise of these rights.

From Article 31 of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP).

Intellectual Property Resources

• Australian Indigenous Knowledge and Libraries [Interloan]

  Martin Nakata & Marcia Langton, editors (2006).

• Carpenter, J., Guerin, A., Kaczmarek, M., Lawson, G., Lawson, K., Nathan, L. P., & Turin, M. (2016). Digital Access for Language and Culture in First Nations Communities. (SSHRC Knowledge Synthesis Final Report). Bella Bella, Vancouver.

• Indigenous Intellectual Property Rights: Legal Obstacles and Innovative Solutions [Interloan]  By Mary Riley (2004). 

• Indigenous Knowledge in Canada's Copyright Act (Canadian Federation of Library Association)

  Position statement on Indigenous Knowledge in Canada's Copyright Act (2018).

• Indigenous Knowledge(s) and the Sciences in Global Contexts: Bringing Worlds Together [eBook]  By O. Ripeka Mercier & Beth Ginondidoy Leonard (2019) 

• Indigenous Repatriation Handbook (Indigenous Communities British Columbia) By the Royal BC Museum & the Haida Gwaii Museum (2019) 

• Indigenous Repatriation Handbook ( Australian Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Ancestral Remains) By Dr Michael Pickering (2020)

• National Repatriation Policy for Kōiwi Tangata and Associated Burial Taonga Within Aotearoa By Museums Aotearoa (2021) 

• Intellectual Property and the Safeguarding of Traditional Cultures (World Intellectual Property Organization)

  Offers legal information and compiles practical experiences on the management of intellectual property for cultural institutions whose collections comprise traditional cultural expressions. By Jane Anderson and Molly Torsen (2010).

• Intellectual property rights, legislated protection sui generis models and ethical access in the transformation of Indigenous traditional knowledge [unpublished dissertation] By Gregory Younging (2006) 
• Minding Culture: Case Studies on Intellectual Property and Traditional Cultural Expressions. Geneva: The World Intellectual Property Organization

  Eight case studies on protecting material and immaterial cultural expression, including textiles, rock art, dance, and more. By Terri Janke (2003).

• Octopus and Cannonball [video clip]

  Keynote presentation by Val Napoleon, Indigenous legal scholar. From IFLA 2012 Presidential Programme.

• Keeping Cultures Alive: Archives and Indigenous Cultural and Intellectual Property Rights By Terri Janke and Livia Iacovino (2012) 

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