'Indigenous Data Sovereignty: How Researchers can Empower Data Governance' with Lydia Jennings

Indigenous land management practices result in higher species richness, less deforestation, and land degradation than non-Indigenous strategies. Many environmental researchers, data repositories, and data service operations recognize the importance of collaborating with Indigenous nations, supporting their environmental stewardship practices, and aligning land stewardship mechanisms with Indigenous rights. Yet these individuals and organizations do not always know the appropriate processes to achieve these partnerships. Calls for government agencies to collaborate with Indigenous land stewards require an increasing awareness of what Indigenous data are and how to manage these data. Indigenous data sovereignty underscores Indigenous rights and interests and can provide a structure for data practices.
In this seminar talk, Dr. Lydia Jennings discusses what constitutes Indigenous data, how to apply an Indigenous data sovereignty framework to environmental research, examples of Indigenous data governance, Tribal Nations’ leading the scientific inquiry process, and how environmental scientists can co-create with Indigenous communities to answer community driven research questions.
Resources referenced in talk:
Websites:
- Global map of Native Lands: native-land.ca/
- US Indigenous Data Sovereignty Network: usindigenousdata.org/
- Global Indigenous Data Alliance: www.gida-global.org/
- Care Principles for Indigenous Data Governance: www.gida-global.org/care
- Te Mana Raraunga Maori Data Sovereignty network: www.temanararaunga.maori.nz/
- Mukurtu CMS: mukurtu.org
- Local Context Traditional Knowledge Labels & Biocultural Labels: localcontexts.org
Recommended talk by Kelsey Leonard about ecosystems as personhood: www.ted.com/talks/kelsey_leon...
Twitter handles to follow:
@1NativeSoilNerd - Dr. Lydia Jennings
@NNIarizona - University of Arizona Native Nations Institute
@IndigiDataLab - Collaboratory for Indigenous Data Governance
@GidaGlobal - Global Indigenous Data Alliance
@USIDSN - US Indigenous Data Sovereignty Network
Papers:
- Berkes et al. 2000. Rediscovery of traditional ecological knowledge as adaptive management. Ecological Applications
Carroll et al. 2019. Indigenous Data Governance: Strategies from United States Native Nations. Data Science Journal.
- Caverley et al. 2020. Articulating indigenous rights within the inclusive development framework: an assessment of forest stewardship policies and practices in British Columbia, Canada. Society and Natural Resources
- Cornell et al. 2004. The concept of governance and its implications for First Nations. Joint Occasional Papers in Native Affairs.
- David-Chavez & Gavin. 2018. A global assessment of Indigenous community engagement in climate research. Environmental Research Letters
- Garnett et al. 2018. A spatial overview of the global importance of Indigenous lands for conservation. Nature Sustainability.
- Johnson, Lilja, Ashby. 2003. Measuring the impact of user participation in agricultural and resource management research. Agricultural Systems
- Kimmerer 2002. Weaving traditional ecological knowledge into biological education: a call to action. BioScience.
- Matson et al. 2021. Transforming research and relationships through collaborative tribal-university partnerships on Manoomin (wild rice). Environmental Science and Policy
- Shuster et al. 2019. Vertebrate biodiversity on indigenous-managed lands in Australia, Brazil, and Canada equals that in protected areas. Environmental Science and Policy.
- United Nations. 2009. State of the World’s Indigenous Peoples.