Recognizing Indigenous Interests: Labeling DSI with Provenance Metadata - Policy Brief

Indigenous lands, resources and Traditional Knowledge (TK) are regularly the source or subject of genetic research, however, information about that source is often absent, obscured or missing from source metadata. The information systems that have been built to store and share genetic material also lack the critical capacity to reflect Indigenous provenance or cultural authority. This is a significant issue, as Digital Sequence Information (DSI) can now be generated with ease, and the general expectation is that it will be deposited in open data repositories. Recognizing Indigenous provenance in metadata and establishing appropriate attribution protocols has emerged as key mechanisms for alignment with the FAIR & CARE Principles as well as protecting the rights and interests of IPLCs in relation to their genetic resources. Local Contexts is a global non-profit that supports Indigenous communities with tools to reassert sovereignty and cultural authority in collections and data. It offers tools for institutions and researchers to disclose the existence of Indigenous rights and interests across a variety of research and non-research contexts.