Rosanna Alegado
Raz Wachtel
Strong Indigenous data sovereignty (IDSov) and governance practices are vital to maintaining Indigenous identity. Generating descriptive end-products for non-technical users centers on Indigenous needs, advancing the collective capacity of Indigenous peoples while fortifying agency. Though the CARE principle framework represents notable progress toward safeguarding Indigenous data, few CARE-compliant data ecosystems currently exist. Instead, a proficiency divergence exists: in industrial settings, standardized data storage and sharing protocols are common, but strong data ethics practices are lacking, whereas in academia, IDSov practices are in active development; however, no literature currently exists on Individual and laboratory-level Indigenous data management. While we anticipate the emergence of Indigenous data trusts, deferring data management until their establishment is inadvisable for proper Indigenous data stewardship. In academia, instability of grant-dependent funding and laboratory personnel turnover yield inconsistent long-term data operations. CARE principles do not address these issues or guide practical implementation, including data platform selection, schema design, or access governance. We will review current Indigenous data practices and propose a framework for individual-level, effective, scalable, and reproducible database systems within cloud computing networks, including suggestions for implementing products with non-technical Indigenous communities in the absence of Indigenous data trusts. Our methods improve data longevity and accessibility, yet require commercial cloud infrastructure, subjecting data to the policies and stability of a third-party provider. Nevertheless, this approach enables secure data sharing through intuitive interfaces that promote greater community understanding and engagement, extending access to previously restricted data to communities lacking expertise in traditional quantitative analysis.