IRSI and the Residential School History & Dialogue Centre
In late 2018, IRSI and the UBC Residential School History and Dialogue Centre (RSHDC) collaborated to receive a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) grant to host a series of Dialogues on Indigenous Data, Information and Records. Shortly thereafter, the BC First Nations Data Governance Initiative came on board as a community collaborator.
Three regional Dialogues were held in 2019: a Vancouver Dialogue at UBC’s Robson Square location (January); a Kelowna Dialogue at UBC Okanagan (April) and a Prince George Dialogue at the University of Northern BC (May).
The regional Dialogues brought together Indigenous representatives, researchers, archivists, librarians and scholars, with the objective of co-developing an Indigenous-led model for engagement around Indigenous data, information, and records housed at UBC and the RSHDC.
Seventy to ninety people have attended each event, discussing data and information collection and governance issues in world-café round table discussions. Topics have included Privacy, Access, & Security; Ethics & Reciprocity; Infrastructure, Resourcing, & Capacity; Ownership & Control; Data Governance & Sovereignty; Rights & Repatriation. Read the Summary Report from the first Dialogue on Indigenous Data, Information and records, held at UBC Vancouver in January 2019.
A National Dialogue on Indigenous Research was also hosted by the SSHRC in Ottawa on March 12 & 13, 2019. IRSI presented at this event.