Taking Data Back: Women’s Sovereignty over Land Data

Mar 30, 2023 | The Land Portal
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The theme for this year’s International Women’s Day is “DigitALL: Innovation and technology for gender equality(link is external)”.  The day aims to celebrate women and girls who are championing the advancement of transformative technology and digital education. Data and technology are a form of power, but depending on their use, they can either amplify equality or exacerbate unequal power structures. Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities have need for agency and control over the data that is about them, in this case, particularly with regards to their land data.  An extra layer of nuance and complexity is to be accounted for when we consider the particular needs of Indigenous women when it comes to their land data.  

In this discussion, we will explore the data gap on the land rights of Indigenous women, as well as their lack of involvement in the field of data science, most particularly in the data that is about them and around their ownership of land.  The aim is to understand if the current model of data science includes and reflects the realities of Indigenous women and their land rights and to better understand how they can take control back over the data that is about their rights.