Background
Existing peatland models and assessment practices have yet to be co-designed with Indigenous governments or organizations inclusive of traditional ecological knowledge. Moreover, emerging data governance concerns for protections of Indigenous data have not been applied within peatland research. The compilation of peatland datasets (in the Can-Peat database) will include Indigenous data that requires additional ethical protocol for use and governance. Indigenous data sovereignty is the right of a nation to govern the collection, ownership, and application of its own data. It derives from Indigenous Peoples’ inherent right to govern their peoples, lands, and resources. This principle is inclusive of peatland research and regions within the proposed study. However, to date, there have been limited applications of Indigenous Data Sovereignty to peatland data.
Activity Outline
- Develop best practices for the governance of Indigenous data within the Can-Peat data repository
- Develop peatland Traditional Knowledge (TK) Labels utilizing the Local Contexts data management protocol
- Work with Indigenous partners to customize TK labels for the Can-Peat data repository – giving the Labels specificity and context
- Develop biocultural (BC) labels for peatland data to define Indigenous community expectations about appropriate use of biocultural collections and data
- Translate the titles of each Label into one or more Indigenous languages to be displayed in addition to the default Label title