Indigenous Data Sovereignty: Rightsholders and Cultural Practices in Climate Sciences

The global syndemic—the synergistic epidemic aggregating the pan/epidemics of COVID-19, non-communicable diseases, racism, climate changes, and economic inequality—facing communities worldwide demands creative solutions and thinking that require the engagement of diverse groups of rightsholders (e.g., Indigenous Peoples), stakeholders, leaders, scholars, communities, and citizens. In climate and environmental sciences, Indigenous Peoples’ are designing responses, projects, and technology that access and use multiple ways of knowing to address the challenges of the syndemic.

The Rightsholders and Cultural Practices Summit will include two speaker panels featuring Indigenous scholars and community members to spur discussion at the intersection of Indigenous Peoples’ rights, food sovereignty, and climate sciences for Southwest Native nations. The two panels will include members of the Indigenous Foods Knowledges Network (IFKN). In 2020, IFKN began a project to understand the impacts of COVID-19 on food access for Indigenous individuals in Alaska and the Southwest.