UCRH’s Aboriginal health research is contributing to a broader conversation about how Indigenous data is used, with Dr Cas Sedran-Price leading a new paper calling for Indigenous data governance to become a core part of environmental and ecological modelling.
Published in One Earth, Why environmental and ecological researchers who use models should CARE examines what happens when researchers use data about Indigenous Peoples, Country and environments to build models that can influence decisions.
For thousands of years, Indigenous Peoples have observed and recorded environmental processes as part of their cultural responsibilities to Country. But colonisation has meant much of this data has been collected and controlled by non-Indigenous institutions, often without the involvement of the Indigenous Peoples to whom it belongs.
Dr Sedran-Price and her co-authors argue researchers should apply the CARE Principles for Indigenous Data Governance when using this data.
CARE stands for Collective Benefit, Authority to Control, Responsibility and Ethics. The principles complement the widely used FAIR data principles, which focus on making data findable, accessible, interoperable and reusable.
The paper argues that putting CARE into practice is not a barrier to good research. Instead, involving Indigenous Peoples and centring Indigenous knowledge and interpretations can protect Indigenous rights and interests while making environmental models more accurate, useful and scientifically robust.
The authors also provide practical ways researchers, universities, funders and journals can help embed CARE into modelling and research practices.
