DEFENDING RIGHTS ON AI, SHAPING FUTURE FOR INDIGENOUS PEOPLES

In 2021, a pilot project in Sanikiluaq, an Inuit Indigenous Peoples’ community in Nunavut, was able to locate previously undiscovered fishing locations thanks to the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) model that integrates traditional Indigenous Peoples knowledge, with non -indigenous scientific data and remote sensing techniques.

This has been an innovative manner to react to a problem caused by the climate and biodiversity crisis affecting the availability of fish, creating new sustainable, adaptable marine fishing solutions with the Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC)  by Indigenous Peoples’ communities. Their knowledge systems and deep understanding of their land, coastal ecosystems and ocean, brought to success this project and above all created a concrete future’s perspective.

Artificial Intelligence  and Indigenous Peoples’ rights and culture seem to be in conflict each other, but this an example of success with the benefit of both, while AI is used in an ethical way that respect rights of people, in this case, Indigenous Peoples knowledge ownership and right to FPIC.

But the technology is never neutral. Who controls it? Whose voices are left out?  While AI can support cultural and knowledge revitalization, youth empowerment, respect of rights (individual, customary and collective, in the case of Indigenous Peoples) and even adaptation to climate change and combat to biodiversity loss, it often goes in the opposite direction: that is, reinforcing bias, exclusion, lack of recognition, respect and misrepresentation of Indigenous Peoples. Thus,  AI can either perpetuate colonial and dominant cultures and narratives or serve as a revolutionary tool for all.

This year’s theme of the  International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples is dedicated to “Indigenous Peoples and AI: Defending Rights, Shaping Futures” : while AI offers great potential reshaping our world at an unprecedented pace, it also brings significant risks, especially true for Indigenous Peoples.

Danielle Boyer is a 22-year-old Indigenous People (Ojibwe) robotics inventor and advocate for youth. She is engaged in making education accessible and representative for her community so that no child is left behind. In 2019 she created The STEAM Connection, a youth-led charity ushering in a new age of education via personal and wearable robotics, AI, and augmented reality. From her Tik Tok video on ‘AI is good or bad?’ :  “AI is just a tool, it is not harmful on environment by itself, it depends on how you are using it, and how it has been processed. It harm environment if you are processing at a large scale, but if you are creating your own model, on your own computer, and it is processed internally, does not harm on environment. I want AI to be used in a way could be helpful and not harmous. AI can do a lot for us, it can do a lot for communities, only if it is done in a right way, only if it is done by us, for us”.

A matter of fact: if Indigenous Peoples’  perspectives are erased from the design of AI, this cannot be considered innovation, but exploitation. As reported in Indigenous AI (www.indigenous-ai.net), the Indigenous Peoples Protocol and Artificial Intelligence Position Paper (2020) by Indigenous Peoples Protocol and Artificial Intelligence Working Group and the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research, Honolulu, affirm how Indigenous Peoples protocols can inform ethically created AI, leading to a kind of AI that could centralize the knowledges of Indigenous Peoples and the importance of Indigenous Peoples’  data sovereignty and ownership, Collective Indigenous Peoples ‘ knowledge ownership is one of the cornerstones of FPIC. This would mean also to involve Indigenous People from the beginning in the creation of AI technologies, recognizing their sovereignty, collective rights, culture and knowledge systems, implies a full observation of FPIC to consult them on how to regulate their use.

Indigenous Peoples are rights and knowledge holders that contribute to finding game-changing solutions for a better future for all:  where AI could support the preservation of Indigenous Peoples’ food and knowledge systems, there could be spin-off benefits of engaging Indigenous Peoples communities in AI’s development. AI is central in FAO Science and Innovation Strategy, and Indigenous Peoples can contribute to it is effectiveness.

Why to focus on them? Indigenous Peoples represent slightly over 6% of the global population, they manage or occupy 25% of the world land and are protecting the major part of remaining biodiversity on Earth. Their food and knowledge systems are both wise and innovative.

The International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples has been observed every 9th of August since 1994, when the UN General Assembly adopted it. Every year, the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (UNPFII) proposes a different theme for the International Day.

As the example of the pilot project in Sanikiluaq, they want to explore ethical ways to use digital technology and data analytics to improve their existing knowledge practices, aiming to enable indigenous Peoples-led adaptive collaborative management of ecological systems.

It is essential that Indigenous Peoples play an active role in shaping the future of AI. The UN General Assembly adopted in 2024 a resolution focusing on the respect, protection and promotion of human rights and fundamental freedoms throughout the circle of artificial intelligence systems.

At the same time, in the implementation and use of AI, the digital divide could foster inequalities, with a major evidence for Indigenous Peoples.

This International Day of the World’s Indigenous People is underlying once more how Indigenous Peoples issues can be so actual for all the umankind, and it will open the eyes to all of us to the need of ensuring universal rights.

The UN Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (EMRIP), in the occasion of the Eighteen session in July 2025, presented an important Study and advice on the right of Indigenous Peoples to data, including data collection and disaggregation. The role of data in achieving the right to self-determination, and the right to Free, Prior and Informed Consent in the context of data, jointly with data governance and sovereignty and the impact of artificial intelligence, are crucial.

These are fundamental rights, because data is a cultural, strategic and economic resource; Indigenous Peoples’ knowledge systems  are  expressions of their inherent sovereignty and overarching right to self-determination, as a critical enabler of collective well-being and sustainable development and as a tool to counter ongoing dispossession and discrimination.

Spread the word! Let’s leave no one behind. 

#WeAreIndigenous

#IndigenousPeoplesDay

-      Commemoration event on 8 August 2025:  https://social.desa.un.org/issues/indigenous-peoples/events/IDWIP-2025

-      Listen to FAO Director General message on International Day of Indigenous Peoples: FAO Digital Media Hub - 20250808 FAO DG Video message Int Day of Indigenous People.mp4   

-       Read about the work of the Global-Hub on Indigenous peoples food systems here