Why Indigenous people are fighting for data sovereignty [Video]

Data tells a story, and that’s why survivors of the notorious Mohawk Institute – Canada’s longest running residential school – are reclaiming data and sharing their truths. This week Rosanna speaks with Indigenous people who are reclaiming data to better understand the past and build towards the future. From traditional knowledge passed down through oral storytelling to the records kept by governments and institutions, data is power. Keeping that power in Indigenous hands is data sovereignty.

Abigail Echo-Hawk is tired of working with data sets that erase urban Indigenous people. 

Echo-Hawk, who is a citizen of the Pawnee Nation of Oklahoma, is the executive vice-chair at the Seattle Indian Health Board and director of the board’s Urban Indian Health Institute. She regularly combs through large data sets from county, state or federal governments that weren’t collected with Indigenous people in mind or simply don’t count them at all. 

That’s why …