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Thanks for reading News River, here’s this week’s news,

This week’s stories include: 

• ‘Truth, courage, care’: Esk’etemc leader honoured with ‘B.C.’ reconciliation award

• Nakota communities reclaim audio recordings housed at Indiana University

• Have you registered for #DataBack Day with Tanya Talaga on Feb 20th?

• He Built a Server to Protect Indigenous Health Data

It’s Love Data Week 2026!

The big picture: Love Data Week is an international celebration of data, taking place every year during the week of Valentine’s day. Universities, nonprofit organizations, government agencies, corporations and individuals are encouraged to host and participate in data-related events and activities.

Why it matters: The aim is to celebrate data in all its forms, promote good research data management strategies, share data success and horror stories, and ask hard questions about the role of data in our lives. Originally coordinated by Heather Coates in 2016, the planning committee developed themes, wrote and curated content, and developed activities. 

Key points: 

• This year’s Love Data Week theme is “Where’s the Data?” – a way to get people thinking about data’s journey from collection through storage and preservation.

• The theme opens up exciting possibilities for interactive programming, whether that’s hosting data-themed games, building data literacy skills, or diving into the ethics of responsible data use. 

• Hosted by the Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR), this page lists Love Data Week data events around the world at-a-glance.

Learn more: #LoveData26 is proudly hosted by the Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR)

Curated Articles:

Love Data Week celebrates the many forms of data at ASU

Data is everywhere around us — found in spreadsheets of temperature readings, Apple Watch fitness metrics and even a diary in the ASU Library archives. Data appears in many different forms, and at Arizona State University, it has the power to drive research discoveries, tell stories and strengthen community impact. In celebration of International Love Data Week (Feb. 9–13), ASU Library is putting the spotlight on data at ASU and experts who can help us make sense of it. “Love Data Week is an opportunity to think about all the different kinds of data we encounter at ASU, from geospatial data to meteorites to historical data found in archival materials," said Rachel Fernandez, an assistant librarian within the Open Science and Scholarly Communication Division of ASU Library. “At ASU Library, we also want people to think about how data is generated and shared, ethically and responsibly." Understanding data has never been more important in helping leaders and policymakers make critical decisions that shape communities. As a source of data and collaborators with data, ASU librarians work with researchers across all disciplines to ask questions, use data responsibly and amplify the impact of their work. One example in practice is working with the Labriola National American Indian Data Center, an Indigenous library center within ASU Library.

‘Truth, courage, care’: Esk’etemc leader honoured with ‘B.C.’ reconciliation award

Charlene Belleau has been ‘leading voice’ of justice for survivors — documenting truth and supporting community healing. “She has supported communities in collecting and protecting oral histories, accessing historical records, and creating safe spaces where survivors can share their truths with dignity and care.” She was heavily involved in the Sugarcane documentary, through her work as an investigator and with firsthand experience at the “school,” using her knowledge to continue leading and helping others learn the truth. In a past interview with IndigiNews, Belleau mentioned how it wasn’t until the documentary that her family became aware of how difficult her work was with the residential “schools,” but she remained committed to helping others and ensuring people continue to grow through their experiences. “I’ve said before that I want our people to know that because of our resilience, that we’re stronger for what we’ve been through,” she said.

He Built a Server to Protect Indigenous Health Data

Joseph Yracheta was in charge of a repository that compiled and protected tribal health data. Then its funding was cut. The Native Biodata Consortium is the first nonprofit data and sample repository within the geographic bounds and legal jurisdiction of an American Indian nation, on the Cheyenne River Sioux Reservation in Eagle Butte, S.D. There is a dearth of health data for Indigenous communities. Our network would have helped existing data get interpreted and implemented correctly. The survey data was to be put in a virtual container so scientists could access it. As users, they would be contractually obligated to follow the laws of each tribal nation. That model could then be modified for higher-risk genetic data. We were building tools to make a fairer relationship between tribes and the federal government, and they pulled our access to the money. Right now, we’re going to philanthropists and tribes for funding. We’re staying away from federal dollars because we don’t trust them, especially right now.

Nakota communities reclaim audio recordings housed at Indiana University

University is working with communities to use recordings for language learning. Indiana University in Bloomington, Ind., is working with Nakota communities to return valuable cultural archives of recordings of their elders. Kenneth Helgeson, a Nakota language teacher at the Hays Lodgepole School in Fort Belknap, Mont., said when he first became a teacher in 2003, elders at the school were working on translating stories and an online dictionary database from recordings at the university. He would tag along. Richard Henne-Ochoa, director of Indiana University’s Institute for Indigenous Knowledge, said they are assisting in developing online archives where Nakota communities can host the collections and exercise data sovereignty. The goal, said Henne-Ochoa, is "to rematriate these materials back to the Nakota communities from which it was taken or otherwise extracted." Henne-Ochoa said in the years past, western academia was going into these communities, offering compensation like cigarettes or groceries in exchange for stories.

Video game Relooted tasks you with reclaiming African artifacts in museums

African-based studio featured real-life artifacts in heist-style game for PC. Relooted, a new video game from African-based studio Nyamakop, tasks players with stealing African artifacts from museums and private mansions to return them to their rightful historical owners. At first glance, it might look like a purely fictional affair, but its creators want you to know that every featured artifact is real. "We didn't have to make anything up about these artifacts, because the history is out there," said Mohale Mashigo, Relooted's narrative director. Players control Nomali, a young woman with an athletic background and penchant for parkour and free running, who has returned from Tanzania to visit family in a near-future Johannesburg. Frustrated at Western museums' recent actions to hide away their African collections — defying a transatlantic repatriation treaty — Nomali's grandmother recruits her and a small team to infiltrate museums and private collectors' mansions and reclaim key artifacts to return them to their rightful owners and descendants in Africa. 

Canada’s new AI strategy is off to a bad start

Canadians already have low trust in AI. Exclusionary and unclear public engagement methods aren’t helping. If Canada is trying to build public trust in AI, why is the country’s recent AI strategy consultation an untrustworthy mystery box? In October 2025, Canada’s AI and Digital Innovation Minister Evan Solomon launched a 30-day, whirlwind public consultation on a renewed national AI strategy. As part of this consultation, Solomon sought public input on the new AI strategy through an online survey, while also establishing an AI task force composed of 28 experts who were asked to prepare reports on a variety of AI policy issues. Last week, findings from the government’s consultation were published in the form of a high-level summary of over 11,000 public submissions and 32 reports from AI task force members. If it was subjected to a scientific peer review process, ISED’s methodology would be severely scrutinized. Canadians already have low levels of trust in AI, and one of the pillars of Solomon’s new AI strategy is to build public trust. The methodology used to analyze the consultation data and create the summary report is counterproductive to that goal.

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