Grounding Indigenous Rights

What is Local Contexts?

Local Contexts is a global initiative that supports Indigenous communities with tools that can reassert cultural authority in heritage collections and data. By focusing on Indigenous Cultural and Intellectual Property and Indigenous Data Sovereignty, Local Contexts helps Indigenous communities repatriate knowledge and gain control over how data is collected, managed, displayed, accessed, and used in the future.

Local Contexts recognizes the inherent sovereignty that Indigenous communities have over knowledge and data that comes from their lands, territories, and waters.

Local Contexts Labels and Notices were created to ground intellectual and cultural property rights in cultural heritage, data, and genetic resources within digital environments.

The Labels and Notices are generated and managed using the Local Contexts Hub.

Indigenous communities

reinforce rights by applying TK and BC Labels

Traditional Knowledge (TK) and Biocultural (BC) Labels establish Indigenous cultural authority and governance over Indigenous data and collections by adding provenance information and contextual metadata (including community names), protocols, and permissions for access, use, and circulation.

Institutions and researchers

disclose interests by placing Notices

Black square with the letters BC in the middle in white.

Notices are tools for institutions, repositories, and researchers to support ethical use and reinforce relationships with Indigenous communities. They also work to educate the public around Indigenous rights and interests in historical and future collections and data.

What is the Local Contexts Hub?

The Local Contexts Hub is a web portal that enables the customization of Labels by Indigenous communities and the generation of Notices by institutions and researchers. Labels and Notices can be applied to Local Contexts Projects created within the Hub depending on the account type.

Community

Community accounts can customize TK and BC Labels to display local and traditional protocols. The Labels are used as digital signifiers to explain how Indigenous history and culture is accessed and used going forward. These Labels can be attached by community accounts to Local Contexts Projects.

Institution

Institution accounts can apply Notices to Local Contexts Projects. Local Contexts Projects document information about a particular item, collection, sample, etc. Applying Notices allows institutions to engage acknowledge, and make visible Indigenous interests in collections, information, and data.

Researcher

Researcher accounts are specifically for independent researchers. Researcher accounts are very similar to institution accounts but only have one member, the account creator. Researchers can apply Notices to Local Contexts Projects that document particular data or research you may have conducted.

Hub Users

51

Communities

58

Institutions

194

Researchers

34

Countries

News and Updates

New Guidance for Indigenous Collections and Data

Sep 9, 2026 Guidance for Indigenous Collections and Indigenous Data: Recommendations from Creative Commons and Local Contexts is a new resource for cultural institution staff and cultural heritage… …

Data Do’s and Don’ts: A Primer on Indigenous Data Sovereignty

Jul 31, 2026 Data Do’s and Don’ts: A Primer on Indigenous Data Sovereignty is a new guidebook written by Dr. Jane Anderson, Co-Founder and Council Vice Chair of… …

State of the World’s Plants and Fungi Symposium Recordings and Report

Jul 17, 2026 The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew recently hosted the 2026 State of the World's Plants and Fungi Symposium. The event brought together experts to focus on… …

2024-2025 Annual Report

May 13, 2026 We are excited to share our 2024-2025 Annual Report, our organization’s first public-facing report of this kind.  After a welcome from Executive Director Hop Hopkins,… …

Upcoming Events

Organic Seed Growers Conference 2027

March 24, 2027 - March 31, 2027
 
Poster for Organic Seed Growers Conference, “Seeds across time: Relationships and resilience. March 24-27, Asheville, NC, March 30-31, virtual.” Illustration of a circular calendar showing different plants in each month's wedge.

Save the date! The biannual Organic Seed Growers Conference, hosted by the Organic Seed Alliance, will be held March 24-31, in Asheville, North Carolina, USA, and virtually.  This will be the first time this longstanding event is hosted outside of Oregon. There will be a focus on farmer’s rights, intellectual property, seed stories and their …

TUM Project Week: Data Ethics in Practice

January 11, 2027 - January 15, 2027
 
“Presentations and events” on decorative background.

The Technical University of Munich’s Project Weeks create a framework in which students and lecturers work on innovative solutions to current problems across disciplines, curricula, and locations. Local Contexts is thrilled to collaborate with TUM to offer students a chance to engage in a shared space of theoretical and practical technical problem-solving with the goal …

Local Contexts Virtual Office Closed

December 28, 2026 - January 1, 2027
 
“Away from our desks.” Text inside of circle on decorative background, a green-tinted forest.

The Local Contexts team will be away from our desks December 28-January 1 for a year-end break. If you have any questions during this time, please contact us through our website, and we will get back to you when we return to our desks on January 4, 2027.

Local Contexts Hub Information Session

December 2, 2026
, 22:00 UTC
“Information Session.” Text on decorative blue-green background.

Do you have questions about Local Contexts or the Local Contexts Hub? Curious about how you can use the Traditional Knowledge and Biocultural Labels and Notices to support Indigenous data sovereignty and cultural authority? Sign-up for a group informational or Hub demonstration session with the Local Contexts team!