“Do you collect data to give to the university or do you do the work to benefit people?”: Indigenous Data Sovereignty in Environmental Contexts

Abstract

This paper analyzes the current practices of Indigenous data sovereignty in environmental research and activism in the United States, as known by the settler government. The CARE principles are a widely adopted set of guidelines for Indigenous data sovereignty with guidelines being collective benefit, authority to control, respect and ethics, yet there exists little detail on current practices of operationalization and implementation of the CARE principles. This research specifically identified opportunities to further clarify how environmental data can be managed in accordance with the CARE principles. Using current literature, we examine how sustainability and Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) research could better incorporate Indigenous data sovereignty and governance. Through three interviews with Indigenous environmental practitioners, we use inductive and deductive analysis to understand current thoughts and practices. In a forestry analysis case study with the Penobscot Nation, we examine specifically how the CARE principles could be implemented into a research project. The interviews and case study reveal design considerations such as emphasizing roles in responsibility and ethics to be taken into future HCI research involving Indigenous data sovereignty in environmental contexts.