New Indigenous Data Platform is built on Relationships
This week! Discover how to keep historical records, stories, and community archives connected to their cultural home.
Boozhoo News River Readers,
We'd love to hear what you think about the stories we are sharing this week celebrating historic powwows and new digital heritage and cultural projects. Your comments and replies help our conversations grow stronger and more meaningful.
At the bottom of the newsletter you will see a link to comment on the online version of News River, or hit the reply button and we’ll read your comment that way too!
This week’s stories include:
Honouring the late matriarch of the jingle dress at this year’s 20th anniversary of the Manito Ahbee Festival in Winnipeg, one of the largest powwows in North America.
When done correctly, the co-production of Indigenous Knowledge Systems with Western science draws on the strengths of each respective knowledge system.
Digital Museums Canada (DMC) announces over $2 million invested in 18 new online projects developed by museums and heritage, cultural and Indigenous organizations across Canada.
Meet Niiwin in Winnipeg at the Indigenous History & Heritage Gathering!
The big picture: Our new data platform Niiwin is built on relationships. Our team will be on-site at IHHG to demonstrate how our platform is helping organizations like the Survivors' Secretariat, Edmonton Public Schools, and the Digital Witness Blanket project to manage their data in culturally safe and secure ways.
Niiwin empowers people to take control of their stories and data. From protecting sensitive residential school documents to sharing approved records for land claims - simple tools that put you in control of your digital narrative. Niiwin allows you to create data structures that honor your ways of knowing, and to build custom tables, fields, and relationships that align with how your community understands and shares knowledge.
Why it matters: Most data platforms were built for corporations by even bigger corporations. Niiwin was designed with and for Indigenous communities, starting with how knowledge is actually held, shared, and protected in our communities. Niiwin means "four" in Anishinaabemowin, representing the four directions and balance in all things including data governance. Niiwin can help keep historical records, stories, and community archives connected to their cultural home.
Key points:
Niiwin grew from our direct work with Knowledge keepers and Elder, community archivists and researchers, Indigenous technologists and developers, Nation governance bodies, as well as cultural centers and museums.
We bring together a deep understanding of traditional knowledge protocols and governance, with respect for OCAP®, CARE, and FAIR principles. Partners can choose where to store, access, archive and protect their data with enterprise-grade security and modern encryption.
The IHHG, hosted by the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation and the First Nations Confederacy of Cultural Education Centres, assembles diverse groups working to amplify the distinct stories of Indigenous Peoples across Turtle Island.
What they’re saying: We heard from communities that they needed ways to connect scattered records across agencies and archives, as well as tools to protect sensitive knowledge - while sharing what could be shared. They also told us they wanted systems that respect both traditional and modern governance, and a platform that remains under community control.
“To honour the truth shared by Survivors and our search for more than 140 years of information gathered through records and documents, we needed to work with people who could build a data platform that honours and respects our people, our stories, and voices, because this is what our data are about. We’re working with Animikii to leverage Niiwin’s core Indigenous Data Sovereignty technology to protect and manage the memories held in the records, the data. We need to ensure the truth associated with the Mohawk Institute Residential School is no longer hidden.” - The Survivors’ Secretariat
What’s next: Explore Niiwin - our new data platform. We’ve used Niiwin to create and sustain learning communities, complex data-driven storytelling apps and as the backbone of many custom and culturally safer software solutions alongside our partners.
Learn more: Animikii is a sponsor of the Indigenous History & Heritage Gathering (IHHG) taking place June 2-4, 2025, at the RBC Convention Centre in Winnipeg. Register to attend here: https://ihhg.ca/
Curated Articles:
Manito Ahbee: Manitoba powwow, one of North America’s largest, celebrates 20 years
For many familiar with Canada’s powwow scene, Maggie White is known as the first lady of the jingle dress. The late Anishinaabe woman earned the title after popularizing the jingle dress regalia and dance style at powwows in the late 1960s to the early 1980s. In the years since, the dance, known as a healing dance, has become an official category at powwows. White’s family is honouring the matriarch and the jingle dress at this year’s 20th anniversary of the Manito Ahbee Festival in Winnipeg, one of the largest powwows in North America.
Digital Museums Canada awards over $2 million in funding to museums and Indigenous organizations
Digital Museums Canada (DMC) is pleased to announce an investment of over $2 million in 18 new online projects developed by museums and heritage, cultural and Indigenous organizations across Canada. DMC is managed by the Canadian Museum of History, and these projects were selected by a national advisory committee from the 2024 Call for Proposals. "This year we received over 150 proposals for inspiring online projects from every province in Canada," said Leah Resnick, Director, Digital Museums Canada. "We continue to see a record number of proposal submissions from museums, demonstrating their keen interest in digital storytelling and building their online capacity."
Braiding Indigenous Knowledge Systems and Western science through co-creation and co-teaching
Co-production of Indigenous Knowledge Systems with Western science is increasingly recognised as an important component of education and research. When done correctly, it draws on the strengths of the respective knowledge systems, ensures Indigenous data sovereignty, empowers communities, supports reconciliation, and fosters mutual respect. However, despite these clear benefits and alignment with the United Nations Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, few examples, guidance, or frameworks exist, especially in the context of science education. Here, we illustrate how co-designing and co-teaching courses can effectively enhance knowledge systems.
Native-led nonprofit partners with Tlingit and Haida to bring free books to kids
Thousands of new books, many by Indigenous writers, are landing in the hands of kids across Southeast Alaska this month. A series of book drops are the result of a partnership between the region’s largest tribal government and a Native-led nonprofit with roots in the Navajo and Hopi nations. The organization started delivering books throughout the Navajo and Hopi Nations in a pink van in 2023. Since then, NDN Girls Book Club has traveled across the United States with books in tow.
Settler colonialism in Donald Trump's America
This commentary contends with the broader settler colonial structures through which the second Donald Trump presidency may proceed. Through a historical and contemporaneous engagement with broader concepts such as settler colonialism and the ‘frontier’, this piece grapples with how Indigenous nations can ensure their continued vitality through this political moment. Nearly two months after his inauguration, Trump and his allies have already cast aside many norms and systems, creating chaos and disorder within the United States and internationally.
