On February 18, Andrew Martinez (Tohono O'odham, Diegueno, Yaqui) participated in the Data Decision to Action: Public Data Infrastructure for Scientific Discovery panel session during the American Association for the Advancement of Science Annual Meeting. The session centered on the opportunities data generates for scientific discovery, innovation, and building quality public data infrastructures, and consisted of three pre-recorded presentations and a live Q&A panel. Stephanie Russo Carroll (Ahtna) contributed to a pre-recorded presentation. Each speaker addressed how data that are Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable (FAIR) enhance these opportunities. During the live session, Martinez emphasized that to build quality infrastructures, data must implement Indigenous governance principles that are FAIR and advance Collective Benefit, Authority to Control, Responsibility, and Ethics (CARE). Operationalizing CARE results in a more integrated approach to data collection, storage, and use, focus not only on individuals, but also community-controlled data, and find ways to build trust between data actors and tribal rightsholders.

This panel served as a great opportunity to continue to introduce researchers, data scientists, software developers, and others to the CARE Principles for Indigenous Data Governance. Following the panel, Martinez and NNI’s Stephanie Russo Carroll were invited to draft a follow up paper.