What best reflects data sharing governance to respect Indigenous data sovereignty?

• A. Data should be stored in a private repository with no community input.
• B. Data sharing decisions should be guided by researchers to streamline analysis.
• C. Data storage and sharing should be governed by the community with benefits shared back to the community.
• D. Data must be destroyed after every analysis.

Answer: (C)

Indigenous data sovereignty means communities have control over how data about them are stored, accessed, and used, and they benefit from that data. In practice, this requires the community to govern storage and sharing decisions and to ensure that the benefits of the data return to the community.

This option is the best because it places governance in the hands of the community, ensuring that data are handled in culturally appropriate ways, with oversight and consent aligned to community priorities. It embodies ownership, control, access, and possession in a real, actionable way and supports reciprocity—benefits and capacities are shared with the community rather than extracted by researchers.

Choosing alternatives undermines sovereignty: keeping data in a private repository with no community input removes community control; allowing researchers to guide sharing decisions can sideline community priorities; destroying data after analysis eliminates opportunities for future beneficial use or accountability.