Indigenous Data Governance & Universities Communique

Universities create, use, and hold enormous amounts of Indigenous data. These data range from old historical records to contemporary large datasets, including Open Data2 and the data underpinning emerging Artificial Intelligence (AI) Technologies. Indigenous Peoples’ data include information about individuals, families, and communities, and environments as well as knowledges, cultures, languages and specimens. All Universities are responsible for managing research data ethically, effectively, and transparently. The issue for Indigenous Peoples is that Universities are failing to affirm and uphold Indigenous Data Sovereignty (IDSov) and operationalise Indigenous Data Governance (IDGov), leaving these academic institutions open to claims of complicity in the ongoing structure of colonisation.