Indigenous Data Governance Foundations

This course, INF2151H: Indigenous Data Governance Foundations, introduces students to the ethics, principles, frameworks, and methodologies implicated in the design and creation of data collection and governance systems centered on the rights to sovereignty and self-determinism of First Nations, Inuit, and Métis peoples, as well as Indigenous peoples in a global context. The course surveys the legal and political dynamics of Indigenous-settler relations, with an emphasis on the problematic history of data collection by state and non-state actors within Indigenous populations, and on the data sovereignty countermeasures developed and deployed by Indigenous communities. This course develops students’ understanding of key distinctions between Indigenous and western epistemic traditions, worldviews, and ways of being by incorporating Indigenous methodologies and understandings of data collection and research into its critical and analytical frame. Special attention is paid to the data governance and sovereignty principles embodied in core frameworks such as the OCAP (Ownership, Control, Access, and Possession) and CARE (Collective Benefit, Authority to Control, Responsibility, and Ethics) models, and the emerging legal and jurisdictional implications of policy mechanisms such as UNDRIP (United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples). The course engages with emerging trends and case studies in Indigenous data governance, inclusive of operationalized examples of core frameworks across various jurisdictions such as the Inuit Circumpolar Council, and through data governance policy development within settler governments, institutions, and industries.