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.

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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.

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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

Learn More About Local Contexts and the Hub
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News and Updates

Detail of black and white beadwork on red cloth by Jennifer Neptune. Resources

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… …
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Cover of Data Do’s and Don’ts: A Primer on Indigenous Data Sovereignty with the NSF CBIKS logo and an illustration of a hand holding seeds. Resources

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

Juli 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… …
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“Royal Botanic Gardens Kew State of the World’s Plants and Fungi 2026.” Report cover. Background image shows a person barcoding a pressed plant specimen. Resources, Talks

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

Juli 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… …
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“Local Contexts Annual Report 2024-2025.” Text on decorative background, a photograph of moana/ocean at the Whakatōhea Mussel Farm. Announcement

2024-2025 Annual Report

Mai 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,… …
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Upcoming Events

Local Contexts Hub Information Session

Dezember 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!

Local Contexts Hub Information Session

Oktober 14, 2026
, 19:00 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!

Hawai‘i Institution/Researcher Network meeting

September 30, 2026
, 21:00 UTC
More info
“Working Groups and Networks.” Text on decorative orange background.

The next Hawai‘i Institution/Researcher Network meeting will be held September 30 UTC. For this meeting, we will host a brief presentation orienting the group to Local Contexts Labels and Notices as tools for operationalizing Indigenous Data Sovereignty (IDSov). We will also work in breakout discussions about IDSov principles and terminology and to compile resources, knowledge, …

Climate Week 2026

September 22, 2026 - September 23, 2026
, 22:30 UTC - 00:30 UTC
Event poster. “Living Data, Living Land. More-Than-Human Rights, AI, and Indigenous Data Sovereignty. Tuesday, September 22, 6:30-8:30 pm. Vanderbilt Hall, Room 218, NYU Law. Speakers: Jane Anderson, Eve Tuck (Unangax̂), Suzanne Greenlaw (Maliseet), Carlos Andrés Baquero-Díaz, Erin Robinson, Neil Davies, Maheata White Davies (Raiatea), Mililani Ganivet (Tahiti).”

Building on last year’s inaugural Living Data, Living Lands, this year’s NYC Climate Week convening will center the question that the Global Indigenous Movement has been addressing for decades: How can Indigenous communities control the AI infrastructure itself? This gathering engages AI, which, left unchecked, could extend extractive logics that absorbs material without attribution, provenance, …

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