Co-developing Openness: Indigenous Knowledge and Data Governance and Open Science in Canada

Open science (OS) is a movement towards making the scientific process, and its outputs, more transparent, accessible, inclusive, and credible, and has become a Government of Canada mandate. But how does OS impact Indigenous knowledge and data governance (IKDG)? Indigenous knowledge and data challenge typical data norms in how they are collected, used, disseminated, and governed. OS research may include Indigenous knowledge, data, and/or information. In this light, in this master's thesis I aim to answer the following research question: How do the ideals of data, information, and knowledge governance, compare with those of open science, and is Indigenous open science possible? I conduct a literature review, semi-structured interview with a First Nation Elder, and comparative content analysis, and analyze the goals, objectives, standards, and knowledge governance practices of OS and IKDG. I argue that an OS framework should be co-developed to prioritize Indigenous knowledge and data governance.