Led by Corrine Smolen

Summary of discussion: Acknowledgement of sovereignty of and compensation for indigenous data

TaMIS met to discuss indigenous data sovereignty – the idea that indigenous peoples should have control over data derived from them or their lands. The meeting was attended by 14 participants and involved a discussion among students, faculty, and staff at Penn State about acknowledgement and ownership of indigenous data or data derived from indigenous lands or knowledge.

Ideas Discussed

• Awareness of data sovereignty of indigenous groups is lacking at Penn State
  • Few resources or precedents in place for how Penn State researchers can navigate indigenous data
  • There are some efforts to return artifacts to indigenous peoples at PSU natural history collections/museums
• How much is indigenous data worth? (“How much would you be willing to spend”)
  • A fee would result in inequity and bias towards ‘richer’ institutions or research groups who could pay to access the data
  • Other ‘fees’ could be benefits that your research brings communities, sharing knowledge gained etc.
• Tension between open data and data sovereignty
  • Data can be commercialized, but the people that data was derived from often receive no benefit
    • This affects both indigenous groups and others
  • Goal is to maintain open data while acknowledging, respecting, and benefiting those the data came from
    • Local Contexts may be a route for this
      • Allows researchers to partner with indigenous groups (e.g. taking samples from indigenous lands/waters)
      • Currently very small and very poorly occupied

Actionable Items:

Provide awareness of projects like Local Contexts which seek to link researchers and indigenous peoples to allow indigenous people more control over data derived from them