Indigenous research data management

Researchers who are working with research data pertaining to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander or other Indigenous peoples and their lands should address how they will manage that data in a data management plan.

The plan should follow best practices but may also address:

• FAIR and CARE principles cover ethics and free, prior informed consent with relevant communities and individuals
• how you will meet funder requirements around research relating to Indigenous peoples, lands and resources
• ownership or custodianship of data that is culturally appropriate and respects sovereignty and cultural practices
• Indigenous Cultural and Intellectual Property rights over any material you may use or rely on
• how you will prevent disclosure of culturally sensitive data or other sensitive data
• how the data will be shared in a way that benefits the community, any restrictions on sharing the data (eg limited to certain people/genders, or the community wants to retain the data and not share it openly)
• options to renegotiate the DMP at any point during the research project.

The plan should reflect Indigenous voices and views to ensure the data is managed in a way that reflects what is important, meaningful or benefits Indigenous people, and that will respect traditional knowledge systems, minimise harm and maintain Indigenous data sovereignty and rights.

Watch Indigenous research (YouTube, 2m 11s):

The Guide to the AIATSIS Code of Ethics for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Research (PDF, 3.92 MB) (4.1 Indigenous Data Governance) outlines the requirements to be included in a data management plan:

• how and by whom the data will be stored or archived
• who can access the data, who can use the data and for what purpose
• from whom permission is to be sought to access or use the data and potential secondary use of data in the future — an individual, group or organisation
• benefit to Indigenous partners or participants
• practical steps that will be taken to ensure that the data is of a suitable qualitative standard and preservable and manageable in accordance with the views of communities and individuals.

Indigenous Cultural and Intellectual property (ICIP) refers to the rights of Indigenous people to protect their cultural heritage, particularly in the Australian context. It applies to a range of areas including cultural objects, artwork, designs through to cultural practices, storytelling, spiritual knowledge and the documentation of Indigenous peoples' heritage in all forms of media. It can extend to Indigenous deep ecological knowledge of Country, plants and animals.

As part of your data management planning, you should address how you will manage ICIP. Western understanding of ownership of knowledge will differ to Indigenous views which may prioritise collective ownership of cultural knowledge. Work with community and traditional owners of any cultural knowledge or ecological knowledge to determine the best way to ethically work with knowledge or data to avoid misuse. The following resources are a good starting point to learn more about ICIP and Indigenous research data.

• How to protect Indigenous Knowledge and creative IP from exploitation - University of Melbourne.
• Keeping research on track II - NHMRC.
• True Tracks : respecting Indigenous knowledge and culture - Dr Terri Janke
• Indigenous Cultural and Intellectual Property - Dr Terri Janke and University of Melbourne.
• Maintain and strengthen your culture : handbook for working with Indigenous ecological knowledge and IP.