December 12, 2025
“We’ve been titled ‘the Indian Problem’ in historic documents. We’re looked at as being diseased and dysfunctional. And in fact, when we think about turning that around, and looking at appreciative inquiry into relation to a distinct population, you find such beauty, such elegance, such sophistication.”
– Gwen Phillips
Genome BC is committed to recognizing, understanding and respecting the worldview of Indigenous Peoples. This involves addressing the systemic inequities that exist within Western scientific research, taking action to create inclusive spaces and maintaining ongoing dialogue about the ways we can evolve and collaborate towards a more equitable future.
For many of us, reconciliation can involve radical shifts in how we understand knowledge to be acquired, taught and held. This is a journey that takes time, but we all have a responsibility to educate ourselves about the past.
The following are key actions that we can all participate in, taken from a conversation between leader in Indigenous data sovereignty Gwen Phillips (Ktunaxa Nation) and Candice Loring K’wiloo’km N’kwala (Gitwangak band of the Gitxsan Nation), Director of Indigenous Relations and Initiatives, Genome BC. You can also watch the full conversation.
Understand sovereignty and data sovereignty
“Indigenous data sovereignty to me is really just an extension of […] human identity and the right to our identity as human beings.”
– Gwen Phillips
For Phillips, recognizing personhood encompasses the rights to be seen, to belong, to be connected to a place and to find purpose. This can either apply to a person’s right to either their identity as an individual, or as part of a collective. It’s also about taking ownership and control of information that are gathered about them, who has access to the data and where the data are stored.
Within OCAP® principles, access and possession of data does not immediately equal rights of ownership and control. A common mistake is neglecting to understand if someone’s informed consent has been provided as an individual or as a representative of a distinct Indigenous Peoples, a clan, house or community. In any case, it’s important to define interactions and context clearly.
“As soon as somebody says, ‘I’m a First Nation person], […] they think that person should have all kinds of knowledge, […] that they should be the expert on being a First Nation, and they are not.”
– Gwen Phillips
Cultural safety should be a part of data collection and interpretation. Phillips uses the COVID-19 pandemic as an example of why permission needed to be considered differently for individuals and collectives.
“You can protect me as a human […] but I have an obligation — knowing what history has done to my people — to make sure I’m not exposing them to something that could potentially wipe out my culture from the face of this earth. That’s where it translates from Gwen’s right to Gwen’s responsibility, […] we have a responsibility to care for each other […] We have a responsibility to care for the land, to care for the things around us.”
– Gwen Phillips
Shift away from the deficit model
“Words create worlds.”
– Gwen Phillips
It’s common to see collected data about Indigenous communities presented using a deficit-based framework. This refers to the emphasis on negative findings — and ultimately, stereotypes— and frames Indigenous communities as at-risk, of poorer health or struggling socioeconomically.
Analyzing data through a deficit-based frame leaves little room for progress or recognition of Indigenous success. This also ignores the legacies of colonization and systemic discrimination that continue to impact Indigenous communities.
“We’ve displaced people from having purpose, usefulness,” says Phillips. “It won’t make your people feel well […] if all you do is pay attention to when you’re not well.”
Phillips uses Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder as an example. When the Ktunaxa Nation was exploring what data was available to support them in their multi-year participatory-action research initiative, they undertook a provincial-level scan to identify what was being measured. Gwen noted, “the majority of reports I was seeing said, ‘scarcity of data, trend not available’. And the things I did see, they were looking at disease and dysfunction.”
“So I could [measure] disease and dysfunction [and tell] people you caused brain damage in your baby. Now, would that have been a healthy response? […] That would have just caused more trauma, […] and hopelessness […] so we said, ‘we’re actually going to look at this as a community healing and intervention program. The healing had to come first to understand we did not do this on purpose’.”
– Gwen Phillips
To counter a deficit-based framework is to understand the real needs of Indigenous Peoples and communities, as expressed by the communities themselves. This involves contextualizing data within Indigenous knowledge, worldviews, histories and culture, as well as shifting our measures of success to, as Loring describes, “beyond GDP”.
“The more energy we put into celebrating Indigenous success, the more success there is, and the more people will feel comfortable to stand tall and say, ‘I’ve made choices that have brought me to where I want to go under my success metrics, not within a colonial worldview of what success is’ […] We have our own success metrics. We have our own priorities. Just because that doesn’t match a Western worldview it doesn’t mean that success isn’t as valid.”
– Candice Loring
Allow conversations to take time
“My message would be don’t think you’re smarter than the person you’re talking to […] Open to actually being a humble learner, […] don’t discredit what’s coming to you. It might not come to you in the form that you actually understand it the first time round […] Our elders always told us you’ve got to listen at least three times.”
– Gwen Phillips
Engagement is a long-term process and successful conversations become part of ongoing relationships. “Don’t take knowledge as a snippet [and], think you’ve got it […] It takes time. It’s a growing knowledge,” says Phillips.
When working directly with Indigenous communities, a researcher’s interactions are not limited to formal project timelines. Ongoing responsibility, care, protection and cultural safety are crucial. This is essential to building ongoing trust.
Phillips believes that mood and environment play important roles to how a person is thinking, so it’s important to be conscious and cautious. “First and foremost, try and put yourself in their shoes,” she says.
It’s important to have uncomfortable conversations and to acknowledge the cause and effects of generational trauma. Often, the effects are still visible today. It’s also normal to fear these conversations and it’s okay to open up and be vulnerable about this. This is part of acknowledging each other’s humanity.
“Learning about our trauma may be uncomfortable, but living it is something else. Having to go back to my community and see the trauma within my immediate family, within my children, my parents […] I know trauma. I’ve felt it. I’ve lived it.”
– Candice Loring
Champion Indigenous-led initiatives, for Indigenous Peoples
“That’s really powerful, talking about flipping the script. This idea of empowering Indigenous communities to be in charge of their own research and innovation goals, that us as Indigenous peoples know what we need.”
– Candice Loring
Indigenous self-determination and self-governance are crucial to allowing communities to thrive. This involves stepping back and understanding who gets power, ownership and control over a project or its goals.
Self-governance allows Indigenous Peoples autonomy over their own communities. It recognizes them as experts in determining their own priorities, livelihoods and measures of well-being. “People still live very close to the land and understand the fragility of it,” Phillips adds.
Committing to Indigenous self-governance can initially feel challenging. It can involve dismantling what many of us see as a ‘normal’ approach to many processes. “Stand back and let the actual process be driven by another group,” Phillips advises. “Try differently, not harder.”
Conversations, context and intent are again, a part of this process. “True engagement starts with engaging, finding out what are the challenges, what are the community concerns, and how can the knowledge or gifts that I’m bringing in support the realization of those goals. And that’s definitely something that we don’t typically see in research,” says Loring.
Collaboration and the creation of safe spaces are a part of this process too. “Go back to the very human level,” Phillips says, “we’ve forgotten about the human capital.” Remember that acknowledging Indigenous rights also means that we’re acknowledging people’s rights. “OCAP® isn’t just for Indigenous Peoples, it’s for all people”, says Phillips.
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