The unauthorised extraction of digital records of First Nations’ ecological knowledge from open online collections is being used to train Artificial Intelligence (‘AI’) systems. These practices risk undermining Indigenous data sovereignty, stripping cultural knowledge of context and protocols, and enabling their reproduction, use or manipulation in ways that are disrespectful, cause harm, and are misleading. The question arises, how can cultural institutions (such as Libraries, Archives, and Museums) that create and/or hold such digital repositories serve as trustworthy stewards of First Nations’ knowledge in an era of generative AI?
This workshop reports on the progress of the project lead by the authors bringing together key stakeholders such as First Nations communities, whose knowledge is or may be housed in digitised collections, and cultural institutions and professionals. Other stakeholders include AI developers, government and policymakers, interested members of the public, and academic researchers in law, ethics, and information science.
Working with selected institutional and First Nations community partners, the project is co-designing and develop prototype database standards and supporting governance materials.
The Workshop at ISA Congress 2026 will serve as a further opportunity to assist institutions with designing legally sound systems that are both culturally sensitive and technologically resilient. The goal is to embed established Indigenous governance and data sovereignty principles into metadata structures, access protocols, and rights management – ensuring that trust is built into the very architecture of digital cultural collections containing First Nations' ecological knowledge. This workshop encourages participation of First Nations' elders and knowledge holders, curators of digital collections, scientists, lawyers, policymakers, AI technologists, and ethicists.