Why Indigenous Data Sovereignty Matters

National Indigenous Peoples Day is a time to recognize the heritage, cultures, and contributions of First Nations, Inuit, and Métis peoples across Canada. It is also a moment to think about what self-determination means in a digital world, and that conversation starts with Indigenous data sovereignty.

Data sovereignty is the right of Indigenous peoples to govern the collection, ownership, and use of data about their communities. It is a fundamental expression of the same self-determination that National Indigenous Peoples Day asks us to honour.

Data about First Nations, Inuit, and Métis peoples has historically been collected by outside institutions, interpreted through non-Indigenous frameworks, and used to make decisions affecting communities without their knowledge or consent. As governments and organizations race to modernize and AI is trained on massive datasets, we risk replicating that pattern at unprecedented speed unless we make deliberate choices to do things differently.

Doing things differently means recognizing that First Nations, Inuit, and Métis peoples are not a single group. It means giving communities real decision-making authority, not just advisory roles. It means co-designing systems with Indigenous representative organizations from the outset. And it means accepting that some data is simply not ours to collect or use, regardless of what the technology makes possible.