Research Data Management: Indigenous Data Sovereignty and Governance

This page provides information for understanding Indigenous Data Sovereignty and Governance.

It introduces readers to key concepts and frameworks in Australia and Internationally, and outlines the unique responsibilities and actions that these understandings carry for researchers working with Indigenous knowledges and/or knowledges affecting Indigenous communities.

The information is organised into the following sections:

Background and Definitions

Governance Frameworks

Actions

Further Reading

Introduction: Indigenous Data Sovereignty and Governance

“In Australia, Indigenous Data refers to information or knowledge, in any format or medium, which is about and may affect Indigenous peoples both collectively and individually”. (Maiam nayri Wingara Indigenous Data Sovereignty Principles Communique 2018)

In relation to research, Data Governance refers to the exercise of power and authority over a research project’s design, interpretation, processes of validation, ownership/authorship structures, and crucially, rules around the access and use of data.

Indigenous peoples around the world exercise control and careful management of their data by implementing Indigenous Data Sovereignty and Governance frameworks.

Indigenous Data Sovereignty forms part of Indigenous peoples’ wider rights to govern community, Country (including lands, waters and sky) and resources, as outlined in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP).

Indigenous Data Sovereignty frameworks address the continuing problem of colonial knowledge practices - extractive, harmful, and/or careless uses of Indigenous Data and Indigenous Cultural Intellectual Property (ICIP), more broadly.

The frameworks are vital interventions in existing data management landscapes and infrastructure that are unfit to support Indigenous governance or nourish Indigenous knowledge futures.

Approaching Data Differently: data as relational

Unlike neoliberal approaches to data management commonly employed in universities and other institutions, Indigenous peoples’ data governance is often not simply about the data as a stand-alone product. Instead, it is about the people, places, and ancestors who all create and govern an asset that happens to be data.

Understanding data as a relational good, produces different relationships of authority, and criteria of accountability around its treatment and uses.

Principals of Indigenous Data Governance, will vary according to a community or organisation’s understanding of whether the use of data satisfies the spirit and intent of culturally based knowledge practices and lineages.

Governance is about relationships. The relationships established between researchers and Indigenous Knowledge Holders, and specifically, the Research Agreements produced from these, that will define the parameters of Indigenous Data Management Plans.

For more information about researching with and for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Communities, refer to the resources prepared by Moondani Balluk.

 

Indigenous Data Sovereignty and Governance Frameworks

 

In Australia, there are several Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander expert frameworks and toolkits for best practice around Indigenous Data Sovereignty and Governance. Some examples include:

  • Section 4.1 (Indigenous Data Governance) of the AIATSIS Code of Ethics for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Research  outlines what needs to be included in a data management plan:
    • how and by whom the data will be stored or archived
    • who can access the data, who can use the data and for what purpose
    • from whom permission is to be sought to access or use the data and potential secondary use of data in the future — an individual, group or organisation
    • benefit to Indigenous partners or participants
    • practical steps that will be taken to ensure that the data is of a suitable qualitative standard and preservable and manageable in accordance with the views of communities and individuals.

 

Internationally, the CARE principles for Indigenous data governance were developed by the Global Indigenous Data Alliance (GIDA) in response to the FAIR Guiding Principles for scientific data management and stewardship. In Aotearoa/New Zealand the Te Mana Raraunga/Māori Data Sovereignty Network has developed these Principles of Māori Data Sovereignty:

  • Rangatiratanga/Authority
  • Whakapapa/Relationships
  • Whanaungatanga/Obligations
  • Kotahitanga/Collective benefit
  • Manaakitanga/Reciprocity
  • Kaitiakitanga/Guardianship
 

Indigenous Data Management Actions

 

When research includes Indigenous Data (as defined above) there are specific requirements for its preservation, storage, and sharing, that must be considered.

 

Files and Metadata

Indigenous Data files should be titled, described, and documented in language that aligns with the Indigenous knowledge system it is documenting. Co-design your data description, and management protocols with Indigenous researchers, communities, and participants. Naming and describing of data will require the use of vocabularies that meet the needs of Indigenous communities. In Australia the AIATSIS Pathways Thesauri, is a good resource to use for supporting the appropriate description of subjects, places, and languages. For galleries, libraries, archives, and museums, Tui Raven's (2023) Guidelines for First Nations Collection Description is a good resource.

 

Storage, Access, and Futures

Decisions around Data Retention periods, Secure Storage and Access, and Data Futures – components of any Data Management Plan – will all require co-design and decision-making with the Indigenous Knowledge Holders.

In Australia, there are several Data Storage services that specifically cater to Aboriginal and Torres Strat Islander Data, such as Murkutu, Keeping Culture, and ATSIDA. These types of storage services often have principals of Indigenous Data Sovereignty and Governance and correct observance of ICIP embedded in their Security and Access protocols.

Some research agreements will stipulate repatriation of Indigenous Data at the end of a project, so researchers should consult community(s) about this, and plan protocols for returning data to Community Knowledge Holders at a future point; ensuring that data formats and their communication align with the knowledge system/episteme to which it relates.

Some Data Futures protocols may require researchers to donate the data to appropriate archive that is accessible to the Indigenous Knowledge Community. In Australia, AIATSIS accept Indigenous data donations, as does ATSIDA. 

 

 

To Learn More

 

Cantley, L. (2025). Indigenous Data Sovereignty: What Can Yarning Teach Us? Australian Social Work, 78(2), 133–144. https://doi.org/10.1080/0312407X.2024.2328169

Janke, T. (2021). True Tracks : respecting indigenous knowledge and culture. Newsouth Publishing. 

Jones, PL., Mahelona, K., Duncan, S. et al. (2025). Kaitiaki: closing the door on open Indigenous data. International Journal on Digital Libraries 26(1). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00799-025-00410-2

Kukutai, T., & Taylor, J. & Australian National University. Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research, issuing body. (2016).  Indigenous Data Sovereignty: Toward an agenda, edited by Tahu Kukutai and John Taylor. ANU Press.

NHMRC, (2018). Keeping Research on Track II 

Ortenzi, K. M., Flowers, V. L., Pamak, C., Saunders, M., Schmidt, J. O., & Bailey, M. (2025). Good data relations key to Indigenous research sovereignty: A case study from Nunatsiavut. Ambio: A Journal of Environment and Society, 54(2), 256–269. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13280-024-02077-6

Rose, J., Langton, M., Smith, K., & Clinch, D. (2023). Indigenous Data Governance in Australia: Towards A National Framework. International Indigenous Policy Journal, 14(1), 1–30. 

Sterling, R., Kukutai, T., Chambers, T., & Chen, A. T.-Y. (2024). A Māori data governance assessment of the NZ COVID Tracer app. Discover Social Science and Health, 4(1). https://doi.org/10.1007/s44155-024-00092-2 

Smith, L. T. (2012). Decolonizing methodologies : Research and indigenous peoples. Bloomsbury Academic & Professional.

Walter, M., Kukutai, T., Carroll, S.R., & Rodriguez-Lonebear, D. (Eds.). (2020). Indigenous Data Sovereignty and Policy (1st ed.). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429273957