# Indigenous Data Sovereignty **Domain:** Indigenous Governance / Data / Continuity **Doc Type:** Governance Framework **Maturity:** Developed **Related:** [[wiki/Community Data Sovereignty|Community Data Sovereignty]], [[wiki/Continuity Custody|Continuity Custody]], [[wiki/Provenance|Provenance]] --- ## Definition **Indigenous data sovereignty** is the authority of Indigenous Peoples to govern data, knowledge and information concerning their peoples, territories, cultures and relations according to their own laws, institutions and priorities. It is not generic privacy with cultural branding. Individual consent may be necessary without being sufficient where a dataset contains collective knowledge, community histories, genetic relations, language or sacred and restricted material. ## Indigenous-Governed Frameworks The Global Indigenous Data Alliance's CARE Principles emphasize **Collective Benefit, Authority to Control, Responsibility and Ethics**. They complement technical FAIR principles by centering people, power and purpose. The First Nations principles of OCAP®—**Ownership, Control, Access and Possession**—govern how First Nations data and information are collected, protected, used and shared in the Canadian context. CARE and OCAP® are not universal substitutes for the laws and protocols of particular peoples. Local community standards take priority where they exist. ## Continuity Relevance Continuity systems may ingest genealogies, oral histories, voices, kinship records, ceremonial knowledge and community archives to reconstruct a person. Custody and provenance must therefore record collective restrictions and authority alongside individual directives. A source person's wish to upload material cannot automatically extinguish the rights of relatives or peoples represented within it. ## Governance Requirements - Indigenous decision authority from design through disposition; - data and model provenance that preserves community conditions; - control over access, reuse, training and commercial benefit; - capacity to audit, withdraw or renegotiate participation; - safeguards against reconstructing identities or ancestors contrary to community law; - preservation arrangements that remain usable by the community itself. ## Sources - [Global Indigenous Data Alliance — CARE Principles](https://www.gida-global.org/careprinciples) - [First Nations Information Governance Centre — OCAP®](https://fnigc.ca/) ## See Also [[wiki/Right to No Reconstruction|Right to No Reconstruction]] · [[wiki/Adversarial Provenance|Adversarial Provenance]] · [[wiki/Decolonial Critique of Continuity Infrastructure|Decolonial Critique of Continuity Infrastructure]]