Launch of the Indigenous Peoples' Data Collective

Credit: WolfLab Media

We are excited to introduce the Indigenous Peoples’ Data Collective

A powerful new collaboration convened by the U.S. Indigenous Data Sovereignty Network alongside its key partners, including the Collaboratory for Indigenous Data Governance, Data Warriors Lab, Native BioData Consortium, and more. This Collective brings together Tribal Nations, Indigenous scholars, technologists, and community stewards to co-create locally relevant legal frameworks, policy strategies, and technical infrastructure that center Indigenous sovereignty in data systems. It marks a transformative leap from assertion to activation, as Indigenous Peoples take the lead in governing who can collect, store, interpret, and benefit from data about their lands, cultures, and communities.

Over the last decade, Indigenous Data Sovereignty has been rapidly evolving. We have moved from simple assertions that Indigenous Peoples should have control over data about their lands, communities, citizens, and cultures, to implementing Indigenous Data Governance structures that outline how institutions, including governments, can and should implement policies, procedures, and laws that protect Indigenous Peoples from extractive practices and the misuse of their data while increasing their access to and benefit from their data. Increasingly, Indigenous Peoples seek to create laws and policies that guide how their governments and other institutions and researchers engage with Indigenous data.