Indigenous Data Governance (Hybrid)

Course Description: LAW 631Z (1 credit)

Indigenous data governance activates Indigenous Peoples’ rights to manage and control the collection, application, and use of data about their people, cultures, traditions, lands, and the non-humans to which they relate. Indigenous data governance actively harnesses tribal cultures, values, principles, and mechanisms and applies them to the management and control of Indigenous data—both tribal governance of tribal data and non-tribal stewardship of Indigenous data. This course will examine (1) how Indigenous Peoples govern their data, and will use (or apply) Indigenous standards to evaluate how other data actors and stewards manage Indigenous data and (2) how other data actors and stewards manage Indigenous data. The course draws from best practices across the US and internationally, exploring policies, practices, and tools that embed Indigenous provenance, protocols, and permissions within data infrastructures. With a focus on both scholarship and tangible data governance policy and practice, students will receive hands-on training, facilitating the pragmatic use of data governance strategies that support Indigenous rights and participation across data lifecycles and ecosystems.

At the completion of this course, students will be able to:

• Describe the relationship between Indigenous data governance and Indigenous Data Sovereignty;
• Discern how Indigenous data governance challenges and enhances mainstream data governance policies and practices; and
• Understand different types of mechanisms for enacting Indigenous data governance that Indigenous Peoples, other institutions, and individuals use. 

Course Format (Online & On Campus)

Students will meet on campus for three consecutive afternoons at the James E. Rogers College of Law at the University of Arizona and online via Zoom livestream.

Readings and Syllabus

Attendance & Participation

Registration