Development and implementation of an Indigenous data governance framework and stewardship tool to document, store, and apply Indigenous environmental data in northern Canada
Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: As Indigenous Knowledge is increasingly applied in environmental management, communities look to integrate Indigenous data sovereignty principles to mitigate risks of misappropriation, decontextualization, and loss of control of data.Principles of Indigenous data sovereignty emphasize ownership, control, access, and possession of data; however, few studies demonstrate how these principles can be operationalized in practice, especially for Indigenous environmental data.We present a community-led approach by Dene Tha' First Nation in northern Canada that integrates a data governance framework with a digital stewardship tool to collect, manage, and apply Indigenous environmental data.We developed a governance framework that outlines five key areas of focus for the data system:(1) data governance goals, (2) data collection, (3) data storage and management, (4) applications to land and resource governance, and (5) overarching community engagement.With particular focus on data collection and storage, we describe the process of implementing a community-led approach to designing a stewardship tool that is owned and controlled by the Nation.The stewardship tool enables collection of information on Traditional Knowledge, Western science and Treaty Rights concerns.From 2019 to 2023, the tool was used by 98 persons to collect 1688 observations.Over 60% of the observations were reported as a Treaty Rights concern by the user.The Indigenous data governance framework repositions the Nation as data governors, rather than as data providers, resulting in broad applications in various land and resource governance processes.It enables Indigenous cultural values to persist within colonial frameworks of land and resource governance, while increasing capacity for Nation-led processes to support self-determination.We found that Indigenous data sovereignty was supported through the prioritization of a data governance framework, sustained community engagement, and clear linkages between the data system and decision-making processes.
Source: Ecology and Society
Authors: Gillian Chow-Fraser, Matthew Munson, Ryan Cheng, Nicole Doll, Fred Didzena, Kecia Kerr
Language: English
Subfield: Anthropology
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $975
Funder: Government of Canada
OpenAlex ID: W7213354044