Pathways for First Nations Health Data Sovereignty: Creating Capacity Through Governance

Health reports about First Nations in Canada continue to perpetuate systemic and structural racism in Canada. While the acknowledgment of First Nations Peoples' inherent right to own, control, access, and possess information about them and their territories is increasing in Canadian health data systems, the operationalization of such principles continue to live ambiguously. First Nations Health Data Sovereignty is an ongoing, reciprocal, and intersectional process requiring clear governance principles, well-defined structures, and sustained resources to ensure that Nation-based sovereignty is meaningfully embedded in everyday health data operations. In British Columbia, the First Nations Health Authority, working within the governance pathways assigned by Chiefs and leadership undertook research on the topic of First Nations Health Data to articulate key principles that can equip policy and operations across health data systems. These principles aim to reorient First Nations health data away from western accountability frameworks toward Nation-based self-determination and self-governance.