CARE & FAIR: Opposing or Aligning Concerns?

Abstract

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The CARE principles aim to empower Indigenous peoples by promoting their active participation in the governance of Indigenous data, ensuring Indigenous responsibility, and aligning the purpose of data governance with their values and priorities. In contrast, the FAIR principles, widely adopted across various disciplines, provide a framework to enhance data stewardship and facilitate data sharing.

This paper seeks to advance the ongoing discussion on the governance of stories collected by the Norwegian Truth and Reconciliation Commission (Broderstad & Josefsen 2024). In our previous work, we applied the CARE framework to explore research ethics and the future governance of the Norwegian TRC material. The collected TRC interviews raise critical questions about ownership, access, and governance of the data. Building on this foundation, we now aim to explore how the TRC interview material can serve as a valuable resource for research while simultaneously ensuring Indigenous participation in its governance and promoting Indigenous responsibility for the collected data.

By integrating the CARE and FAIR principles, we argue that safeguarding Sámi agency in the reuse of this material is essential. Such an approach would help prevent the data from being detached from the interpretive context in which it was originally collected, ensuring that its use remains ethically grounded and culturally appropriate.