G4 Justice Meets Murray Rowe & Forest Green - 04/12/25

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Strategic Planning & Platform Demonstration Summary – April 2025

G4 SNTTC recently hosted a collaborative strategy meeting to explore and implement a First Nations-led data sovereignty system. The session brought together Indigenous technology developers, policy leaders, and community members to align on the principles, platforms, and protocols needed to reclaim, protect, and manage Indigenous data in ways that are sovereign, ethical, and future-ready.

This work centers on empowering First Nations with full control over their data—from environmental monitoring to education, justice, and health—using OCAP®-compliant technology.

• Develop a secure, OCAP-compliant data platform where communities own, manage, and license their data independently.
   
• Support environmental sovereignty, particularly through water data collection, management, and legal readiness.
   
• Build capacity for community-led data governance through training, templates, and toolkits.
   
• Enable secure data-sharing across Nations while preserving autonomy and privacy.
   
• Advance legal and ethical frameworks that protect community knowledge, stories, and historical data from misuse.
   
• Demonstrate and refine platform capabilities for uploads, validations, access control, and governance.
   

Data is power—and in Indigenous contexts, it’s also sacred. The strategy focuses on transforming how First Nations interact with data: from being passive subjects of third-party analysis to becoming active stewards and sovereign controllers of their own information.

Data sovereignty strengthens governance, supports legal claims (such as water rights), improves public safety, informs youth programming, and unlocks economic potential. The ultimate goal: build healthy, self-determined communities through trusted, Indigenous-owned digital systems.

A data sovereignty platform was introduced and demonstrated. It is:

• OCAP-compliant: Communities retain full ownership and control.
   
• Built on modern infrastructure (e.g., Snowflake): Designed for reliability, scalability, and real-time data visibility.
   
• Role-based access: Permissions for admins, creators, viewers, and contributors.
   
• Two-factor authentication & IP restrictions: Built-in security protocols.
   
• Time travel & rollback features: Enables data recovery and audit trails.
   
• APIs and dashboards: For real-time monitoring and automated ingestion.
   

Use cases include environmental datasets, educational data, cultural heritage, health metrics, and more.

A major focus is on water data collection, where Indigenous communities can build baseline datasets on lake, river, and groundwater quality. This information is critical in:

• Asserting water rights against urban overconsumption
   
• Supporting environmental stewardship and protection
   
• Partnering with watershed organizations on monitoring and compliance
   
• Building legal readiness with scientifically backed, community-owned data
   

This water-first approach lays the foundation for broader environmental data sovereignty.

The meeting addressed the ethics of data collection, especially where trauma, health, or cultural knowledge is involved. Guiding principles include:

• Do no harm: Prioritizing community safety and privacy.
   
• Informed consent: Data is collected with transparency and trust.
   
• Repatriation of stories and historical data: Communities are seeking to retrieve cultural content stored in external archives or institutions.
   
• Ethics frameworks: Planned development of Indigenous-led protocols for responsible data use.
   

Global insights on data ethics and Indigenous data governance were also shared to guide local approaches.

Each Nation controls its data silo. The platform allows optional data-sharing across Nations, enabling collaboration while maintaining sovereignty. Key features:

• User-friendly admin controls: Manage access, roles, and activity.
   
• Automated alerts: Notify users of unusual activity or important updates.
   
• Audit logs: Track changes, access, and usage history for full transparency.
   
• Custom dashboards: Display data insights for internal use or public visibility.
   

During the meeting, a live demonstration showed:

• Uploading water quality files to a shared platform
   
• Validating file names and data accuracy
   
• Using SQL procedures for automation
   
• Adjusting user roles and permissions
   
• Viewing system logs and historical user actions
   
• Customizing alerts and dashboards for each community
   

Participants were guided through admin-level controls, illustrating how the system ensures ownership, clarity, and control from start to finish.

The session concluded with a unified commitment to continue development, deepen collaboration, and uphold Indigenous-led principles throughout the project’s expansion.

• Review draft policy templates for data licensing and governance agreements.
   
• Engage in repatriation strategies to reclaim community-held stories and historical data.
   
• Explore inter-community data-sharing models that preserve sovereignty while promoting collaboration.
   
• Compare manual uploads with API automation for long-term scalability.
   
• Finalize security and ethics frameworks to guide responsible data use.
   
• Create structured working groups to meet regularly and maintain progress.
   
• Continue platform refinements based on community feedback and demo results.
   
• Develop educational tools for building local data management capacity.
   

At its core, this initiative isn’t about just collecting data—it’s about reclaiming voice, restoring control, and reinforcing sovereignty in every byte. Through technology, trust, and tradition, First Nations communities are shaping a future where Indigenous data is governed by Indigenous hands.

“Data Sovereignty is not just technical. It’s transformational.”