Workshop 2022 Suggestions

Workshop 2022 Suggestions

The final large group discussion focused on ways to advance practices emerging from the workshop to support Indigenous data sovereignty (IDSov) in collaboration with social scientists and Indigenous communities. Some of these suggestions include:

1. Greater efforts toward building and maintaining relationships after the research is completed to ensure a strong and productive connections with the community.
2. Provision of guidance and support systems for researchers in navigating how to manage support Indigenous data sovereignty (IDSov) initiatives (e.g., data storage, access, future use, etc.) in smaller communities.
3. The creation of an information network that provides guidance and information to stakeholders who plan to integrate Indigenous data sovereignty into their projects/initiatives.
4. Establishing partnerships with experts in technological fields to develop information technology (IT) systems that support IDSov through digitization as well as additional categorization and labeling systems (e.g., metadata, etc.).
5. A commitment to interdisciplinarity and informing/working with researchers outside the social sciences who will foster the application of different perspectives as well as highlight new challenges to IDSov. This will be in cooperation/collaboration with science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines. This will be mutually beneficial as social scientists will be able to draw upon technical knowledge and skills while IT specialists will be educated on pertinent issues relating to education, IDSov, and access to information.
6. Being mindful of the language that we use. For example, consider limiting the use of the term data, and replacing it with words like stories that shift our thinking about the research from material that is collected to the sharing of knowledge and the substantive considerations that emerge.
7. On the separate, but related, topic of fair research practice, workshop participants proposed that the honoraria process be reformed to pay communities with cash rather than cheques. The latter are not an accessible form of payment in numerous Indigenous communities due to geographical location and other socioeconomic factors.