We all know that there is a lot of formal data out there; but indigenous communities often have had bad experiences with this.
Often we are giving over our personal information to some organisation, institution or government and then we never see it again.
We don’t know how our information is being used, what stories are being told with it, or who is able to see it.
This has lead to a general lack of trust in data and a feeling that we need to protect ourselves from those who are seeking to take it.
There is a place for data that can be, and should be, owned by the community, not by institutions, organisations or the government.
But each community has to decide to do this and invest in, and drive that action.
There is already a lot of work happening in indigenous communities around Australia to drive this movement and there is support out there if this is something that you decide to do.
At the local level, it can take time to organise as a community to become clear about
- what issues do you want to know about,
- what is the story you want to tell from the data
Benefits of community-wide data
- Shared story of the community
- Single data collection (not different organisations asking the same things of people)
A short-cut version to this is simply in sharing the data each of you already collect. You are all here because you are passionate about your community. Rather than people operating in silos and trying to collect data separately, you can all benefit from the same pool of information.
Whatever direction you take, it can be helpful to think about ‘What does the community get out of you having the data?’ or ‘Why should they hand over their information to you?’
It is important to be actively communicating back to the community so that they can see what you are doing with their information.
This builds trust in your system and improves the breadth and accuracy of your data over time.