Empowering Roebourne: NYFL and ANU join forces for Indigenous data sovereignty

An Aboriginal community in the Pilbara is taking charge of data about its own people. The Ngarluma and Yindjibarndi Foundation (NYFL) signed an agreement this week with the Australian National University (ANU) to launch the Ieramugadu Data Sovereignty Project. The project will allow the Indigenous community in the town of Roebourne to access and manage information about their own social, economic and cultural situation. The NYFL said data about Aboriginal people has been collected without their ownership or control over that information. “The time of others measuring us, our lives, our wellbeing is over. It needs to be in the hands of our community,” NYFL Chairman Michael Woodley said. “Sadly, the story the data about Roebourne will tell, will likely be tragic. It will show the significant failures across our region, in terms of First Nations social and economic wellbeing.” Roebourne, also known as Ieramugadu, suffers severe disadvantage despite being surrounded by hugely profitable mining operations in the resources-rich Pilbara region. The data sovereignty project aims to address this by letting the community take charge of tracking their own wellbeing indicators such as mental health, employment, justice and cultural matters. “Despite Roebourne being in the heart of the Pilbara region, a region that has an economic output of $100 billion annually, the community continues to experience significant social and economic disadvantage. Elders and the community say enough is enough,” NYFL chief executive Sean-Paul Stephens said. In early March, ANU Professors Peter Yu and John Taylor travelled to Roebourne to meet with Ngarluma and Yindjibarndi leaders and collaborate on refining the data project’s scope. The push for Indigenous data rights is part of a global movement. The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) has called for recognising Indigenous peoples’ sovereignty over governing data collected about their communities. “Data in the hands of Aboriginal people is a powerful economic tool,” said Professor Yu, a Yawuru man partnering on the groundbreaking project. “It will also assist to establish a level playing field at the negotiating table and for First Nations people to own their own risk working to secure the cultural, social and material wellbeing for their community.” Professor Taylor, who has worked with the Pilbara Aboriginal community for 30 years, added: “This local ability to access and control the data that sets the narrative for development is a vital underpinning of self-determination.”