Decolonize Data: Accurate data tells accurate stories
This toolkit is intended to help everyone who collects data understand the guiding principles of what it means to achieve data equity and justice.
About the Guide
Indigenous people have collected and interpreted data for millennia. Our Nations and communities have always had scientists. We recognize research, data, and evaluation as Indigenous values.
Structural racism* and ongoing attempts to erase Native people have resulted in decades of racial misclassification and misrepresentation, worsening many of the health disparities we face today.
UIHI and our partners are dedicated to decolonizing data, recognizing the dire need for data equity, sovereignty, and justice. We are reclaiming our Indigenous data practices to ensure that partners, providers, policymakers, and health advocates have access to information that will help, not hurt, our communities.
Decolonizing data is about reclaiming our traditional data practices, this gives the necessary context to tell complete stories. We know that data is not just numbers and statistics. Native data represents Native people.
You can’t erase us, even if you try.
*Structural Racism: The normalization and legitimization of an array of dynamics (historical, cultural, institutional and interpersonal) that routinely advantage White people while producing cumulative and chronic adverse outcomes for people of color. Source: Call to Action: Structural Racism as a Fundamental Driver of Health Disparities: A Presidential Advisory From the American Heart Association
What you can do
Within this toolkit, you will find sample content and messaging around decolonizing data to use in your communications and outreach efforts.
This messaging is intended to act as a guide, but we encourage you to make it your own. Feel free to copy/paste the content and tailor it to best fit your target audiences.
Share this toolkit with your colleagues who manage your website, social media, and email outreach.
Resources Included
Decolonize Data Guidebook
Drag Queens Decolonize Data Guidebook
Social Media Posts and Graphics
Sample Email Content
Sample Blog Post
Decolonize Data Guidebook
Without accurate data, our communities have struggled to appropriately represent our strengths and colonially created disparities in addition to limiting access to resources.
Now we are demanding Indigenous Data Sovereignty—the right of Indigenous Peoples and nations to govern data about their peoples, lands, and resources.
Download this guidebook to learn more about the Decolozining Data.
Two Spirit, lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, and queer (2SLGBTQ+) relatives have been profoundly impacted by data genocide. Western methodologies have led to the non-inclusion of gender diversity, misgendering, deficit-based analysis, and more.
Download this guidebook to learn more about how the community can reclaim its voice and presence through decolonizing data.
Harmful colonial practices are embedded in western data systems. For decades, Indigenous people have been misidentified, misclassified, or erased through data genocide.
No longer. We are decolonizing data by reclaiming our traditional practices, dismantling harmful western methodologies and narratives, and uplifting the power and resiliency of Native communities. Join us.
Indigenous people are the original data stewards. Despite centuries of settler colonial oppression, violence, and racism, data collection and analysis remains an integral aspect of Native cultures. We know that data is never just numbers: It represents our people. Our stories.
We are dismantling harmful western methodologies and reclaiming our traditional practices. We are decolonizing data. Join the movement!
For too long, Indigenous data has been used to promote a deficit narrative while failing to acknowledge the reason for current Native health outcomes: Structural racism.
Indigenous data leaders and our allies are actively reclaiming Native data. We can all contribute to dismantling harmful, racist systems of oppression, which includes ending data genocide against Indigenous communities. Be a true ally. Support data collected by Native people, for Native people.
Accurate data tells accurate stories. Indigenous peoples know that data represents more than just numbers. Data represents people. That’s why we are working to end Data Genocide, a harmful practice that has impacted Native communities for too long. #DecolonizeData
Accurate data tells accurate stories. For too long, western data practices have misidentified, misclassified, and erased Native people – resulting in data genocide. That’s why we’re partnering with the Urban Indian Health Institute to decolonize data.
Decolonizing data looks like presenting our data with the necessary context to tell complete stories. We know that data is not just numbers and statistics. Native data represents Native people.
With these harmful practices impacting everything from adequate healthcare funding to ending the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women crisis, we are one of many organizations committed to decolonizing data.
Accurate data is integral to addressing long-running health disparities, and we have the experience and expertise to lead these efforts.
We are decolonizing data by reclaiming Native data collection, analysis, and research. We are disrupting harmful western systems and rejecting deficit-based narratives. We are collecting data for Native people, by Native people. We are recognizing and honoring the inherent strength of Indigenous people.
Decolonizing Data by Native People, for Native People
Indigenous people are the original data stewards.
We have always gathered, analyzed, and shared data to ensure the well-being of our nations. Native scientific methodologies sustained thriving communities for millennia. We recognized that data is never just numbers. It’s people. Our people. Our stories.
With the institution of settler colonialism, Indigenous communities have faced high rates of data misclassification. Harmful methodologies often misrepresent and misclassify Native people, making it harder to address significant health inequities. The legacy of colonization and genocide continues in how our data is represented or erased.
Harmful western data practices have routinely misidentified and misclassified Native people, contributing to serious health inequities. Data often fails to accurately reflect our communities in local, state, and national reports, impacting health-related funding, policies, and practices. Our data is often presented through a deficit-based lens, failing to acknowledge that structural racism plays a major role in how we live and how we die.
The systemic rewards of colonization, genocide, and institutional white supremacy are major factors in positive health outcomes of beneficiaries of structural racism, non-Hispanic whites — and that’s why that demographic is often used as the comparison group for Native data.
Despite all these obstacles, Indigenous researchers, advocates, and public health leaders are actively reclaiming our data practices. Grounded in cultural values that include respect, reciprocity, and ceremony, we are revolutionizing how Native people are represented.
We are decolonizing data by reclaiming data collection, analysis, and research as Indigenous values. We are disrupting harmful systems and embracing strengths-based narratives. We are collecting data for Native people, by Native people. We are recognizing and honoring the inherent strength of Indigenous people.
