Thursday, 30 March, 2023

3:00-4:00 PM CET
Register now

The theme for this year’s International Women’s Day is “DigitALL: Innovation and technology for gender equality”.  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.  

More specifically, we will: 

• Discuss about what can be done to include Indigenous women in the data cycle in ways that are respectful of and honor their rights.

• The practicalities of Indigenous communities taking back their land-related data. What steps need to be taken in order for this to happen and how can women play a key role.

• How can land related data be collected in terms of cultural values, which women are often at the center of.

• How Indigenous Peoples can participate and be empowered in cadastral data governance.

One of the main aims of the Land Dialogues series is to highlight Indigenous knowledge and wisdom as a solution to pressing global challenges.  The series does so by creating a virtual space that bridges that gap, where the term “expert” is not limited to academics or researchers, in an effort to both decolonize and democratize knowledge.  This opening webinar of the Land Dialogues 2023 series will shed a light, more specifically, on the power differentials that exist when it comes to data. We invite you to join us in this discussion!