First Nations Sovereignty: Indigenous Data Sovereignty and Living Archives

Two PhD scholarships

About the project

Two PhD scholarships are being offered as part of an exciting research partnership between the Digital Equity and Digital Transformation group in the Faculty of IT and the Indigenous Archive Collective:

Indigenous Data Sovereignty

The 2017 ULURU Statement from the Heart enshrined a First Nations Voice in the Constitution, establishing a Makarrata Commission to supervise treaty making processes and embracing truth-telling about First Nations history.

The worldwide Indigenous Data Sovereignty movement recognises the importance of data sovereignty as a key enabler of First Nations sovereignty.

Data is defined broadly to include all information, records and archives created by or about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. The weaponisation of such data has been a devastating component of the colonial project in Australia.

The Indigenous Data Sovereignty Communique Maiam nayri Wingara 2018 addressed all individuals and entities involved in the creation, collection, access, analysis, interpretation, management, dissemination and reuse of data and its infrastructure in Australia.

It defines Indigenous data, data sovereignty and data governance broadly as:

• Indigenous Data: Information or knowledge, in any format or medium, which is about and may affect Indigenous peoples both collectively and individually.
• Indigenous Data Sovereignty: The right of Indigenous peoples to exercise ownership over Indigenous Data.
• Indigenous Data Governance: The right of Indigenous peoples to autonomously decide what, how and why Indigenous Data are collected, accessed and used.

This PhD project will:

• explore the interrelationship between First Nations sovereignty and data sovereignty, and the creation of synthesised and unifying approaches to data, information, records and archives
• develop foundational understandings of Indigenous data sovereignty
• Working with Indigenous partners and communities, research and co-design data, information and recordkeeping governance structures, rights charters, policy frameworks, protocols and models for transformative participatory practice in government and non-Indigenous organisations.

Living Archives of People and Place

This PhD project will explore a radical and new technology-enabled form of community-centred, participatory archive.

Either virtually or through repatriation it will embed or re-embed dispersed data, information, records and archives in Country – reconnecting them with the tangible and intangible records of place and people that continue to exist there.

It will also:

1. Develop the functional requirements for an online Registry of Living Archives of People and Place
   • To identify, contextualise and connect digital, physical, tangible and intangible records and archives of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander organisations, communities and individuals.
   • These include records created on, or embedded, in Country and people, with records and archives held by government agencies and non-Indigenous organisations developed by, or about, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
2. Undertake innovative ‘proof of concept’ prototyping of a Registry of Living Archives of People and Place
   • To test the capacity of existing software (eg. Mukurtu) to provide registry functionality and support a network of Living Archives of People and Place.

The broader research program

As a successful applicant, you will join the research team for the Voice, Treaty and Truth Telling: Recordkeeping Frameworks, Protocols and Models for Transformative Participatory Practice project but also undertake your own distinct PhD initiative. The benefits of this are that you will be:

• integrated into a successful research agenda that has been funded by the Whyte Memorial Fund
• supervised by research leaders, including Indigenous supervisors
• undertake a PhD with a pre-existing structure.
• part of the research outcomes, which may include co-authored publications (where your contributions will be recognised through co-authorship) and future grant applications.

Support for Indigenous PhD students

When you undertake an IT PhD with Monash, you’ll automatically be put forward for any applicable scholarships and have access to other additional support resources:

• a tax-free stipend of $29,500 per annum for 3.5 years
• the opportunity to apply for the Monash Indigenous Research Award funded by MGRO. This is a $5,000 tax-free annual top-up
• $4,000 of research support over the duration of your candidature
• a laptop or desktop provided by the Faculty.

Why Monash?

Monash University is the largest university in Australia.

We rank in the world’s top 100 for Computing and Information Sciences (QS World University Rankings by Subject, 2021) and are the country’s most innovative university (Reuters Top 75: Asia’s Most Innovative Universities, 2017-2019).

For this PhD, you will be based at our Clayton campus as part of our Digital Equity and Digital Transformation group in the Department of Human-Centred Computing – one of the largest multidisciplinary collectives of researchers, practitioners and scholars who are exploring how digital technologies can create a more equitable future.

Candidate requirements

Ideal applicants will have:

• an excellent academic track record
• lived experience in recordkeeping, library or archival field
• knowledge and skills relating to Indigenous Data Sovereignty, recordkeeping, library and archival studies, and/or data science
• met the criteria required for PhD admission at Monash University.

Cultural knowledge and experience in Indigenous and qualitative research methods, Indigenous community-led research and working with Indigenous communities and organisations are desirable.

The successful applicant will be expected to enrol by February 2022, however there may be flexibility around the commencement date.

Scholarship holders must be enrolled full-time. Applicants who already hold a PhD will not be considered.

Supervisory team