Continuing the “Disaster Studies” theme of the “Covid-19 and the Social Sciences” series, Stephanie Russo Carroll, Desi Rodriguez-Lonebear, Randy Akee, Annita Lucchesi, and Jennifer Rai Richards demonstrate the need to understand the role of data as a mechanism of both oppression and liberation. In the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, Indigenous Peoples are working to gain control of their tribal data to combat the erasure of their communities, and to advance data sovereignty. Through this work in the short-term, the authors describe how control over their own data will support access to needed resources in response to the pandemic. In the longer term, data sovereignty will help advance systemic change, and contribute to the larger goal of dismantling racism.
Stephanie Russo Carroll
Stephanie Russo Carroll, DrPH (Ahtna & Sicilian-decent), is assistant professor of public health and for the American Indian Studies Graduate Interdisciplinary Program; and associate director, Native Nations Institute at the University of Arizona. She cofounded the US Indigenous Data Sovereignty Network and the International Indigenous Data Sovereignty Interest Group at the Research Data Alliance, and is a founding member and chair of the Global Indigenous Data Alliance. Russo Carroll’s research explores the links between Indigenous governance, data, the environment, and community wellness.