Boozhoo News River Readers,

It’s an exciting time for Indigenous-led tech! 

Applications for our Niiwin #Databack Fellowship closes tonight, and this time next week we’ll be dispatching NewsRiver from the Indigenous Tech Conference in Vancouver! The agenda is live - hit reply and let us know which sessions you’d like us to cover - if you're not able to be there with us. 

Thanks for being here, and as always - here’s the news,

This week’s stories include: 

• Indigenous Tech Circle (ITC) hosts its first Indigenous Tech Conference next week.

• Winnipeg-based Red Rebel Armour aims to reduce recidivism by offering paid on-the-job training to those re-entering the community from the criminal justice system.

• Indigenous intellectual property needs better protections, say advocates

Niiwin DataBack Fellowship closes Jan 14 - tonight! 

The #DataBack Fellowship is our first cohort of organizations and people who'll receive one year of free access to Niiwin, Indigenous Data Sovereignty training from our team and a seat at the table as we build this together.

We're looking for Indigenous nations, museums, researchers, and community organizations who are ready to start their data work. 

If you’ve been on the fence, today is the last day to submit your application. 

Curated Articles:

Social impact ‘stories behind the numbers’

Winnipeg-based clothing company Red Rebel Armour finalist in $50K national Indigenous Venture Challenge. Sean Rayland-Boubar is rethinking the pitch he uses to tell people about his clothing company, Red Rebel Armour. The Winnipeg-based streetwear and custom manufacturing company was recently named one of five finalists in the Indigenous Venture Challenge, a national competition that connects Indigenous-led ventures with Indigenous angel investors. Red Rebel Armour offers a range of ethically-sourced clothing that integrates Anishinaabe motifs into streetwear to celebrate Indigenous identity. But that isn’t the founder’s only goal for the company: he wants to reduce recidivism by offering paid on-the-job training to those re-entering the community from the criminal justice system.

For Archival Sovereignty and Decolonization

Join Dr. Jamila J. Ghaddar and Raymond Frogner's talk, For Archival Sovereignty and Decolonization, this Friday, January 16th, 4:30 - 6:30 PM EST. All are welcome to join either in-person or virtually. The Critical Archival Praxis (CAP) Conversation Series puts critical archival scholars and practitioners in conversation around shared concerns, approaches, projects and sites. Dr. Jamila J. Ghaddar is an archivist, historian, and educator who lives between Lebanon and the Netherlands. Raymond Frogner is the Senior Director of Research and the Head of Archives for the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation (NCTR). Register to attend in-person, join by Zoom, or stream the conversation live. 

Why B.C.'s innovation framework needs a rewrite for Indigenous tech

To ensure B.C.'s long-term competitiveness, innovation systems must broaden the models of ownership, scale, and growth. Indigenous participation in the tech sector remains strikingly low, below one per cent. It would take an eight-fold increase for participation to have parity with population. That gap is often framed as a pipeline problem, suggesting the solution lies in more training, more exposure, and more time. But the persistence of the disparity points to something deeper. The constraint is not a shortage of talent or ideas, but the design of the innovation system itself.

ITC says Canada’s largest Indigenous tech conference aims to break down silos

Indigenous Tech Circle brings founders, investors, and policymakers together in Vancouver. Next week, the Indigenous Tech Circle (ITC) is hosting its first Indigenous Tech Conference. Set to take place on Jan. 20 and Jan. 21 at the Sheraton Vancouver Airport Hotel, ITC expects the inaugural event to bring together more than 250 Indigenous founders, tech professionals, investors, community partners, allies, and policymakers, which it says would make the conference Canada’s largest gathering dedicated to Indigenous folks in tech.

Indigenous intellectual property needs better protections, say advocates

Amid concerns that businesses are profiting from Indigenous culture without always gaining the consent of the nation from which it originated, it raises the question of how to protect Indigenous intellectual property. Advocates say although there are modest safeguards to protect it around the globe, they often place the burden of proof on the Indigenous nation and they say more could be done. Lynell Tuffery Huria, the first Māori patent attorney and an expert on Indigenous intellectual property rights in New Zealand, says Māori culture is entrenched in that country ― in the national anthem, signage, and even their national rugby team performs a haka, a ceremonial Māori dance, before every match. Tuffery Huria said this “has enabled Māori to be able to assert more control over their traditional knowledge because it's being seen and people can see that it's a valuable resource.”