Data is the 21st century’s most valuable resource. Aotearoa New Zealand is a world leader in linking administrative data, and an early adopter of data-driven policy-making but has yet to develop innovative models of data governance and ethics, value creation and benefit-sharing. Many of the assumptions underpinning Aotearoa NZ’s data ecosystems rest on Anglo-European legal concepts (e.g. individual privacy, consent and ownership) which translate poorly into the big and open data environment.  What is needed is a radically different way of conceptualizing rights that relate to massive quantities of data.

Indigenous data sovereignty (IDSov) marks an important departure from current theory and practice. At the heart of IDSov is the inherent rights of Indigenous Peoples and nations to control the collection, ownership, and application of data about their people, territories, lifeways and natural resources.  This talk provides an overview of recent developments in IDSov with a specific focus on the research and activism of domestic IDSov networks and the Global Indigenous Data Alliance (GIDA).

The Data Then and Now speaker series explores the social and organizational history of data and data practices in order to better understand the current data intensive moment through its antecedents and continuities. Everyone interested is welcome to attend.

For more information about this event, contact the eScience Institute at escienceadmin@uw.edu