Indigenous Data Sovereignty Policy

Constitution §2 principle 9 names Indigenous data sovereignty as foundational, not optional. Map.ca’s business plan already commits to OCAP principles as part of Platform Integrity. OCAP — Ownership, Control, Access, and Possession — is described by the First Nations Information Governance Centre as a framework governing how First Nations data and information are collected, protected, used, and shared. This policy operationalizes that commitment.

Operational rules: Indigenous community data is added with community permission, structured according to local protocols, and remains under community control. Map.ca does not extract, repackage, or commercialize Indigenous data. Sensitive cultural layers — sacred sites, burial places, ceremony locations, traditional gathering places — are kept removable, hide-by-default where requested, and never indexed for public search without explicit consent.

Place names, language layers, and traditional knowledge get the same treatment. A map should not erase people, and on Map.ca it does not. Where Indigenous and settler names differ, the Place Names Policy defines presentation order and authority — with Indigenous review authority on the Indigenous-named layer.

Disputes that touch Indigenous data route to a designated community-review path, not to general moderation. Where a request from law enforcement, municipality, or other government body conflicts with the community’s expressed wishes about its own data, the Constitution’s principle 9 sets the order: the community’s sovereignty over its data is honoured.