The First Nations Data Governance Strategy (FNDGS, or the Strategy) responds to a complex and evolving digital environment while providing a plausible incremental plan to achieve First Nations data sovereignty that is designed to ensure no First Nation is left behind.
Budget 2018 provided funding to develop the Strategy over three years but, due to the strategic importance of this priority, the state of community readiness, and the advancement of the New Fiscal Relationship between Canada and First Nations, FNIGC and its regional partners completed this work in two years and delivered the Strategy to the Government of Canada in the spring 2020 rather than in 2021.
The Strategy represents a collective vision for the future as articulated by First Nations leadership, rights holders, and data sovereignty experts through a series of engagements that occurred over the course of several years.
It reflects priorities specific to establishing a network of fully functioning, interconnected data and statistical service centres, or Regional Information Governance Centres (RIGCs), and all of the capacities needed to best serve the data and statistical needs of First Nations.
VIDEO #1 — An Introduction to the First Nations Data Governance Strategy
This five-minute video presents the vision behind the First Nations Data Governance Strategy and explains why First Nations are building a national network of fully functional, First Nations–led Regional Information Governance Centres. It brings you into the origins of the Strategy, how it is being built from the ground up, and how it will empower every First Nation to achieve data sovereignty in alignment with its distinct world view.
VIDEO #2 — Inside a Fully Functional Regional Information Governance Centre
Building on the introductory video, this video moves viewers from concept to reality. It brings you into the future—to a time when the national network is fully operational and working with, and on behalf of, First Nations communities and Nations across their territories. It showcases examples of how First Nations’ ownership and control of their data can inform decisions, improve outcomes, and enable collaboration on common priorities, strengthening communities and cultures.