Boozhoo News River Readers,

The Animikii team is still on winter break this week, but the NewsRiver carries on. We always appreciate the time you spend here and we hope you’ve been able to connect with the people and activities that feel most nourishing for you.

Here is the first half of this years top ten list - the most resonant stories read by the News River audience in 2025!

We’ll be back next week sharing 5 more top stories - see you then ;)

For Indigenous communities, AI brings peril — and promise

The boom in AI and data centers is driving Indigenous communities to defend their land, resources, and cultural knowledge from new forms of extraction. Artificial intelligence, or AI, systems are being trained on massive troves of online data, much of it collected without the consent of the communities involved. For Indigenous peoples, this new form of extraction has raised questions about who controls their histories, languages, and cultural knowledge and whether the technology will erase or distort them entirely. With this in mind, tribes and nations have been pushing to assert “data sovereignty” — the right to control how information is collected and used — and claim a seat at the table as tech companies and governments set the rules for AI oversight.

Recognising Indigenous data sovereignty and implementing Indigenous data governance at the Ngangk Yira Institute for Change

There is a demonstrated need to change current Indigenous research data collection practices in favour of an approach that embraces Indigenous world views and puts Indigenous peoples in control of their data. Indigenous data need to be accessed and linked in ways that are determined by Indigenous governance groups, thereby facilitating culturally appropriate answers to questions that were previously taken from Indigenous peoples. This paper discusses development of theoretical positions on Indigenous data sovereignty and the mechanism by which this can be achieved, namely: Indigenous data governance. The variety of models, frameworks and principles are then examined. It also describes current projects being undertaken to assist Indigenous communities exercise sovereignty over their data and provides some examples of what can be achieved when research privileges an Indigenous world view and focuses on issues important to Indigenous people and communities.

Indigenous Peoples and AI: Defending Rights, Shaping Futures

The Virtual Commemoration event was held by the UN on August 8th, 2025 for International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples. We’re highlighting key ideas and sharing a partial excerpt from two panelists who spoke about the ethical approaches they’ve taken in adopting (or not adopting) AI tools in their work with Indigenous Peoples. First, Pyrou Chung reframed her question from the moderator, and said we have to go back to the root and ask “What is the problem? And why are we trying to address it with artificial intelligence?” Fellow panelist Danielle Boyer’s explicit description of how they chose to use AI in the creation of their language revitalization robot, also highlights the ways that community participation can contribute to sovereign innovations that also assert culture and identity.

Cultural sovereignty and the future of Indigenous digital storytelling

Indigenous digital storytelling extends beyond sharing narratives—it is a practice of cultural sovereignty, self-determination, and knowledge stewardship. Digital storytelling aligns with Indigenous research methodologies, emphasising relationality, oral traditions, and community-centred knowledge production, ensuring that these stories remain rooted in Indigenous ways of knowing and being. While digital media provides opportunities for Indigenous communities to share their narratives, it also poses risks of appropriation, misrepresentation, and external control. This study examines how relational design and participatory methodologies can support Indigenous digital storytelling while respecting cultural protocols and reinforcing community governance.

GIDA: CARE Directs Us Home: Prioritizing Indigenous Peoples’ Community Standards

First Nations Information Governance Centre (FNIGC), along with members of the Global Indigenous Data Alliance (GIDA), is pleased to share the latest communique titled: CARE Directs Us Home: Prioritizing Indigenous Peoples’ Community Standards. Reflecting on the six years of the CARE Principles (Collective Benefit, Authority to Control, Responsibility, Ethics) for Indigenous Data Governance, this joint communiqué from GIDA members emphasizes that standards are more than technical tools. GIDA calls on institutions, researchers, and standards bodies to uphold and prioritize the standards set by Indigenous Peoples and communities when working with Indigenous data. Honouring Indigenous community standards plays a key role in advancing Indigenous Data Sovereignty (IDSov) and Indigenous Data Governance (IDGov).