Boozhoo News River Readers,

We are back to our regular format this week! As the youth return to classes and as we begin to prepare for Fall at work there’s a kind of reboot in many of our homes and offices … and so, with that seasonal change News River gets a touch longer and more comprehensive.

As always, if you have news or feedback to share, you can send it over to news@animikii.com and we will often be able to include it in the newsletter. 

The big picture: data-centre boom and Indigenous land rights

The debate over AI data centres is deeply connected to Indigenous rights, this week we link up to stories that show the opposition and alternatives are global.

Signals we saw this week: In Australia, a proposed 120-megawatt data centre at Mandoon Bilya (Helena River) near Perth was cancelled after Aboriginal groups and neighbours opposed it; the site is now a wetland restoration. In Canada's North, communities are weighing what a data-centre approach should even look like, with a Kátł'odeeche-owned "IceFox" proposal pitched against hyperscale plans. Saskatchewan released a data-centre framework built on "sovereignty," though it means Canadian sovereignty, with Indigenous partnership only "encouraged" and the opposition pressing on transparency. New Brunswick has opened its own consultation. 

Why we think it matters: AI is spoken about as if it lives in the cloud, but it runs on land, water, and power and a lot of that sits on or near Indigenous territory. The question in every one of these stories is the same one we often ask in our data sovereignty work: who gets to decide?

As the Australian article puts it:

"Who gets to decide about digital systems that directly impact Indigenous lands, rights and livelihoods?"

The Big Question: Will "sovereignty" in these new Canadian datacenter frameworks mean only national data residency, or do these provincies intend to allow Indigenous nations have Free and Prior Informed Consent and exercise sovereignty over Indigenous territories?

More Curated Reads

New genomics collaboration to enable First Nations sovereignty over salmon data — Genome BC. A three-year project led by Ha'oom Fisheries Society (five Vancouver Island Nations) will build open-source, decentralized tools so Nations can process their own salmon genetic data instead of relying on a single federal lab. As bioinformatician Ben Sutherland put it: "The data never have to leave HFS's hands or computers."

Who governs "Tribally Identifiable Data"? — Discover Public Health. US universities and healthcare providers hold large amounts of tribal citizenship and descendancy data used to decide who gets scholarships and care, but rarely share governance of it with Tribal Nations. The authors argue those entities have to bring their practices in line with Indigenous Data Sovereignty.

A decade of Māori data sovereignty — Whakauae. A new special issue of the Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand marks ten years of Te Mana Raraunga, the Māori Data Sovereignty network. It includes "Te Pā Raraunga," a governance model for Ngāti Hauiti that maps data governance onto the parts of a pā.

Canada reports on its Indigenous data sovereignty work — Department of Justice Canada. The latest UN Declaration Act progress report notes that Indigenous Services Canada, Library and Archives Canada, and others co-chair a federal Working Group on Indigenous Data Sovereignty, alongside Métis-specific data governance work. Tbh, it’s a little dry, but interesting to see where federal policy is moving ahead on IdSov. 

Resources and Opportunities

• Learn it: UNBC's new clinical informatics micro-credential includes a course on data sovereignty and OCAP® for health professionals. ASU offers an Indigenous health microcertificate covering sovereignty and tribal health policy.

• Bookmark it: two solid library guides to Indigenous research data management, from the University of Queensland (storage and access) and the University of Waterloo.

• Attend it: a conversation with the authors of "Guidance for Indigenous Collections and Indigenous Data."

• Deeper read: Day et al., "Learning with Country", puts Indigenous data sovereignty among five commitments for rethinking kinship care.