Embedding Indigenous Data Governance in Research Data Infrastructures through Local Contexts

Indigenous Data Sovereignty reflects the inherent rights of Indigenous Peoples to govern data relating to their communities, lands, and knowledge, while Indigenous Data Governance concerns how these rights are enacted within data systems. Translating this into practice within large-scale environmental data infrastructures remains a challenge.

Ocean Networks Canada (ONC) hosts long-term, near real-time coastal and oceanographic datasets that are widely reused across research, operational, and increasingly automated and machine-assisted workflows. In this context, ensuring that Indigenous governance expectations are clearly communicated and respected throughout the data lifecycle is critical. This work presents ONC’s ongoing efforts to implement Local Contexts Traditional Knowledge and Biocultural Labels and Notices as part of its research data management infrastructure, bridging ethical principles with operational practice.

We describe how Local Contexts information is being integrated into ONC’s metadata profiles, dataset landing pages, and persistent identifier workflows using established standards such as ISO 19115 and DataCite, making the metadata human- and machine-readable. This approach ensures that governance signals, including community-defined use expectations and restrictions, remain visible and interpretable to both human and machine users as data moves through downstream discovery platforms and reuse pathways.

This work is being undertaken as a pilot project and proof of concept, using ONC-owned datasets within the Local Contexts Test Hub. Due to capacity constraints faced by many Indigenous communities, full implementation with community-generated labels is not yet in place. Instead, this pilot allows ONC to explore technical integration pathways, identify challenges related to metadata standardization and machine-readability, and develop documentation, guidance, and technical support in advance. This approach is intentionally designed to ensure that, when communities are ready to engage, they are provided with clear resources and meaningful options for participation without undue technical burden.

This case study demonstrates how Indigenous Data Sovereignty can be meaningfully embedded into existing Earth science data infrastructures without compromising FAIR principles or interoperability. By operationalizing CARE-aligned governance within metadata and identifier systems, this work offers a practical, scalable model for repositories seeking to support ethical, transparent, and community-centred data reuse in the Earth and environmental sciences.