Building Indigenous, sovereign data at UNM
April 3, 2024 - Cindi Meche
New Mexico is home to many thriving Indigenous communities, yet due to outdated information and data, the real stories of those communities are not being told. A transformative initiative started by a team at The University of New Mexico wants to help change that by making sure the information about Indigenous communities is coming from the community itself.
The Tribal Data Champions (TDC) Fellowship is a yearlong training for Indigenous people in New Mexico interested in increasing their skills and knowledge in data, evaluation, and research. The TDC helps to build Indigenous data sovereignty, evaluation proficiency, data management skills, and utilize data to tell the Tribal story that evaluates Indigenous health and wellbeing.
A main focus of the program is to strengthen participants’ skills and confidence in data to tell the full story of the beauty and richness of Indigenous peoples, not just how they are overcoming disparities. The TDC Fellowship wanted to change the narrative for those living in New Mexico, rather than perpetuate some negative stories that have existed for the last century. The TDC Fellowship emerged as a response to the diverse data needs within Tribal communities.
The creation of the TDC began when UNM College of Population Health (COPH) Research Lecturer Rebecca Rae collaborated with a team of people at the university to co-create the TDC Fellowship in 2017. COPH staff member Beverly Gorman and consultant Eugene Tsinajinnie joined the endeavor to uplift Tribal communities through data empowerment.
Read full story at UNM Newsroom
