Unravelling digital dispossession of Indigenous spatial data on Taungarung country

This project aims to engage with the phenomenon of digital dispossession experienced by Traditional Owners in Australia to advance Indigenous sovereign standards of practice relating to biocultural knowledge on country.

Digital spatial data and geographic information systems are fundamental in generating representations of landscapes and serve as an intrinsic source of information for building knowledge for states, as well as Registered Aboriginal Parties who have legal responsibilities for managing and protecting Aboriginal cultural heritage on country.

Despite recognition of Indigenous land rights and the importance of self-determined land management practices on country, the default standard for how and what spatial data about Indigenous territories are produced continues to be set by states, professions, and even technologies.

In Australia and globally, Indigenous data sovereignty initiatives aim to align behaviours around data use and practices, but do not explicitly deal with attributes of digital data. This enduring absence of Indigenous sovereign standards of practice impedes Traditional Owners’ agency and self-determination about digital spatial data and systems related to country, resulting in digital dispossession.

In co-design with the Taungurung Land and Waters Council, this project aims to systematically identify how statutorily or professionally established systems and processes around spatial data production and usage of biocultural knowledge result in digital dispossession.

This aim will be realised by:

• developing a conceptual approach to support interdisciplinary critical analysis of digital dispossession.
• identifying and mapping key spatial data transactions related to biocultural knowledge as a basis for analysing the extent to which these are a consequence of existing policies, procedures and technical standards, and for how they operate as dispossessive practices.
• analysing these data to develop recommendations for policy and standards of practice that protects and preserves Taungurung Land and Waters Council’s sovereignty over their spatial data.