“Down to Earth“ Podcast Features Discussion with BAERI’s Sativa Cruz on Data Sovereignty and the Indigenous Peoples’ Initiative

Consider two philosophies around sharing data: Open Data vs. Data Sovereignty. Can these two ideologies coexist? BAERI researcher Sativa Cruz, a member of NASA’s Indigenous Peoples’ Initiative (IPI), talks about this and other matters involving rights over scientific data on the Geoscience and Remote Sensing Society’s podcast Down to Earth, hosted by Stephanie Tumampos.

On the one hand, NASA’s Earth Science program explicitly “promotes the full and open sharing of all data with the research and applications communities, private industry, academia, and the general public.” On the other hand, the IPI prioritizes building trust and relationships with the Indigenous communities whose tribal lands are the sources of the data. Should these communities have a say in the actions and the storytelling that come out of those data? Where are lines drawn between open sharing and privacy, objectivity and custom? Listen to the podcast to investigate these questions and more. (The Down to Earth podcast is also available on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.)