What can we learn from indigenous data principles?
In November I attended many interesting sessions at the ODI Data summit. The one that inspired me most was ‘Data in Indigenous communities: where power lies, why it matters and what we can learn’, a panel discussion with Arthur Gwagwa, Keoni Mahelona, Harmony Johnson, and Levi Craig Murray.
Chaired by Bernadette Hyland-Wood, the speakers shared their own work in Indigenous data, what Indigenous data sovereignty means, and steps we can take towards achieving this. I decided to explore more. I am a white, non-Indigenous, British person and have had limited exposure to Indigenous principles, particularly in relation to data. I come to this topic with an open curiosity, willingness to learn and to be corrected. In this blogpost I’ll share what I’ve learned so far, and why I think it is both important and helpful to us all.
Why Indigenous data governance is important
On their website, the Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Division for Inclusive Social Development (DISD) at the UN states that Indigenous Peoples are those who inherit a way of relating to the land and people which is unique from the dominant societies in which they live - this is usually those who have ancient ties to an area. The UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples does not hold a strict definition of Indigenous peoples. This respects the rights of Indigenous peoples to self-identify.
There are over 470 million Indigenous Peoples worldwide (making up about 5% of the global population), spanning approximately 90 different countries according to the UN.
Indigenous data refers to any data collected by or about Indigenous Peoples. This includes facts, knowledge or information about the people, land, resources, cultures and communities.
Indigenous Data sovereignty is “the right of Indigenous peoples and tribes to govern the collection, ownership, and application of data about them”. Indigenous data sovereignty is important in fighting the colonial legacy, as throughout history there has been an elimination or co-opting of knowledge systems that has forced many tribes to rely on external sources of information about their own communities (see the ‘Data Dependency’ section of this paper in the Data Science Journal for more information). This interplays with the open data movement, as open data is often collected and held by non-Indigenous organisations. Open data also conflicts with Indigenous rights to control the sharing and application of their own data.
Indigenous data governance is one way of achieving Indigenous data sovereignty, alongside decolonising data. It involves the governance of data (how you collect and control data) and data for governance (how you use data to make decisions about and for your community). In the remainder of this blogpost, I will be mainly focusing on Indigenous data governance in relation to the governance of data.
The journey from data dependency to data sovereignty
Figure 1 - Indigenous data governance works alongside decolonizing data to achieve data sovereignty.
Source: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8580324/
Some key concepts
Collective vs individualistic data
In the ODI session Harmony Johnson said:
“We own our own data. And when I say we that’s very intentional. In a lot of ways that’s what characterises Indigenous data sovereignty and makes it different is that it’s a collective right. Western culture tends to really privilege the individual: individual privacy, personal data owned by the individual, protecting personal privacy and confidentiality. And those are important things, but in our worldview, we tend to privilege the collective. It belongs to us, those that came before us and those that come after us and those are rights are owned by us together.“
As I understand it, by taking a collective outlook to data you shift away from ownership as we currently think about it, towards stewardship of data instead.
Keoni Mahelona explained:
“We are developing this license called Kaitaki which is loosely translated to ‘guardian’. It means we are guardians of data as opposed to owners, and that goes back to what we heard earlier in that nobody owns the land, our role is simply to look after the land, because when we look after the land, it will look after our people. Likewise, we shall look after the data, because when we look after the data, it will look after us.”
From the ‘Governance of Data’ section of this paper on Strategies from United States Native Nations, I learned that holding these attitudes (of collectivism and guardianship) creates a system of data based on interdependence rather than expanding individual knowledge. Individuals need to contribute to data, but the responsibility to hold and transfer this knowledge is collective.
“Reciprocity and stewardship are a higher priority than efficiency and economic growth”.
Data is diverse and fluid
We know that data is broad and includes all the types of information a person/organisation collects, stores, analyses, and uses. Indigenous data takes an even more holistic and broad definition of data. It softens the boundaries between data, knowledge and information. Understanding of culture, traditions, land, language, as well as oral histories and stories are all part of Indigenous data. I think this is of great importance as these things are crucial to a person’s identity and wellbeing (see this Indigenous social and emotional wellbeing model).
C.A.R.E. principles of Indigenous data governance
You may already be familiar with the F.A.I.R. principles for data management. They are guidelines to improve the Findability, Accessibility, Interoperability, and Reuse of digital assets and they are undoubtably important.
However, in 2020 a group of indigenous researchers wrote an article arguing that the F.A.I.R. principles do not adequately capture some important aspects of the Ingenious worldview. In short, they explain that the Indigenous worldview centers ‘people’ and ‘purpose’ in its principles for data governance - whereas a mainstream view (that the F.A.I.R. principles are based on) centers the data itself. They propose additional C.A.R.E. principles to bridge this gap.
The C.A.R.E. principles are:
Collective benefit – The data should serve to facilitate a collective benefit for Indigenous Peoples.
Authority to control – Indigenous Peoples need access to data to make decisions and they have a right govern their data.
Responsibility – There is a responsibility to build respectful relationships with those whom the data is about, including their language and worldviews.
Related to this, Arthur Gwagwa gave some brilliant advice when asked how non-Indigenous people can be good allies. He said:
“I think it is about an evidence-based approach, not in the sense of evidence-based approach as it is defined or conceptualised in the West, evidence-based approach is about acknowledging and respecting the lived experiences of the people you are advocating for. And being non-oppressive is listening to their stories, allowing them and encouraging them, giving them the courage to speak for themselves.”
Ethics – Data should be used to minimize harm, maximise benefits, promote justice, and allow for future use. Indigenous people should be the ones the assess these ethics.
The C.A.R.E principles of Indigenous data governance
Figure 2 - An outline of the C.A.R.E. principles, and sub-principles, of Indigenous data governance.
Source: https://repository.oceanbestpractices.org/bitstream/handle/11329/1507/1158-8528-2-PB.pdf
Personal reflections
What I have learned
Researching this topic has highlighted to me just how powerful data can be, and how important data is to empower Indigenous communities.
It has also reminded me that there is not one way to think about or define data - our Western perspective is just one way to make sense of the messy world of data.
It has also allowed me to consider some of the limitations of open data. Open and accessible data is something I believe in, but this cannot be at the expense of the rights of others to manage their data, and I will try to consider this in the future.
Can we apply some of these concepts to non-Indigenous data?
I’ve been thinking that some of the broad concepts from Indigenous data governance may also be considered for non-Indigenous data. I do not want to de-contextualise what I have discussed in this post, but I believe we have a lot to gain from expanding our perspective, and the way we approach data. For example:
Could viewing data as a collective responsibility, and taking a stewardship approach to data governance be beneficial to how we manage data within organisations?
Do we all have a right to control the data that is collected about us? And how important is it to acknowledge and include those who the data we are using is about?
By seeing the cultural value in data and ensuring it has longevity for future, could we better appreciate the vast range of data we already have? And maybe this would encourage us to nurture it in the best way possible
Further questions I want to explore
What are we doing to ‘hand back’ data that doesn’t belong to us. There has been lots of discussion, and some action, around handing back items from colonial looting and I wonder what the UK specifically is doing to rectify non-physical stolen property?
What can we do to be good allies if we are not working directly with Indigenous data? Is there anything further to educating ourselves?
What next?
There is much more about this topic I have not covered, and this is the beginning of my journey in learning about Indigenous data governance.
I would welcome hearing readers’ thoughts on this blogpost and any further views or ideas.
If you would like to dive into this topic further yourself here are some links that formed the basis of this blogpost:
‘The CARE Principles for Indigenous Data Governance’ – the article that outlines the rationale and principle of CARE.
‘Indigenous Data Governance: Strategies from United States Native Nations’ – a comprehensive overview of what data governance is, why it is important and some case studies.
Dr. Jennifer Walker’s talk on Indigenous Data Governance and Research Ethics – Dr Walker gives us a hands-on research perspective on using the CARE principals in her Epidemiology work in Canada.
‘Issues in Open Data: Indigenous Data Sovereignty’ – this is a chapter from the book ‘State of Open Data’ which looks at the issue of Indigenous open data.
‘Data in Indigenous communities: where power lies, why it matters and what we can learn’ – The panel discussion from the ODI Summit 2022 that inspired this blogpost.
United Nations: Fight Racism - An information page from UN with some facts about indigenous peoples