Who Owns the Data About Us? CASWA and the WA Aboriginal Data Sovereignty Alliance
CASWA has joined the WA Aboriginal Data Sovereignty Alliance, chaired by CASWA CEO Chad Stewart, to establish Aboriginal ownership and governance of the data that shapes Aboriginal communities' futures — backed by a seat at the national table.
Insights
Data about Aboriginal health, employment, education and justice is collected and owned, overwhelmingly, by government institutions. Communities often do not control that data, do not interpret it, and are not in the room when decisions based on it are made.
That is difficult to reconcile with a National Agreement on Closing the Gap in which Aboriginal-controlled data is not an afterthought but Priority Reform Four — one of the four structural changes every Australian government signed up to.
CASWA has joined the WA Aboriginal Data Sovereignty Alliance, a collaborative working to establish Aboriginal ownership and governance of data, Aboriginal leadership in analysis and interpretation, and transparent access for Aboriginal organisations. WAADSA has the following current members:
• Aboriginal Health Council of Western Australia
• Goldfields Aboriginal Language Centre
• Kimberley Aboriginal Medical Services
• Ngarluma Yindjibarndi Foundation
• Binarri-binyja yarrawoo Aboriginal Corporation
• Wungening Aboriginal Corporation
• South West Aboriginal Medical Service
• Julyardi Aboriginal Corporation
For ACCOs - If you are expected to lead service delivery and be held accountable for outcomes, you need to own and control the data that measures your performance and drives how resources are allocated to you. Right now, many Members cannot get access to the government data about their own communities — the data used to decide what they are funded to do.
The work runs on three fronts. Through WAADSA, CASWA is building the WA governance architecture. Through the Community-Led Data Connection Project, a partnership with the Office of Digital Government, CASWA will test what community-controlled data infrastructure looks like in practice. Finally, through a seat on the national Data Policy Partnership under Priority Reform Four, CASWA carries WA Member experience directly into Commonwealth and State negotiations.