About Us

Mandate

The Alberta First Nations Information Governance Centre (Alberta FNIGC) has a clear mandate to use research and information collected from the First Nation communities in manners that will truly benefit the health and well being of First Nation communities. It strives to partner with entities that seek mutually beneficial relationships with First Nations through processes that respect First Nation jurisdiction over research and data and to own, protect, and control how their information is collected, stored, used and disclosed.

The governance structure of the Alberta FNIGC is entrenched as an incorporated entity and includes:

The Assembly of Treaty Chiefs as members of the corporation
Treaty No. 6, Treaty No. 7 and Treaty No. 8 appoint a Chiefs Senate, and delegates from First Nation communities to serve as Board of Directors

Vision

The Alberta First Nations Information Governance Centre (Alberta FNIGC) is a leader in strengthening First Nations Sovereignty in data and information governance for the well-being of the sovereign Nations, members, and Peoples of Treaty 6, 7, and 8 in recognition and respect of each distinct knowledge system.

Mission

The Alberta First Nations Information Governance Centre (Alberta FNIGC) is a not-for profit, First Nations-owned organization working to promote, protect, and advance the First Nations’ Ownership, Control, Access, and Possession (OCAP®) principles, the inherent right to self-determination, and jurisdiction in research and information management. Our organization supports partnerships with our Nation members in respect of free, prior, and informed consent to promote credible data owned by First Nation Peoples.

Our Elders’ Perspectives

“We need a trustworthy, Indigenous, organization model that’s going to support our Elders’ oral teachings, our elders’ knowledges, and somebody that the younger generation can go to and know that the information is more accurate, because of who is involved in the research.” – Lorraine Cardinal, Treaty 6 Elder

“We need a place to deposit that knowledge in a safe place. A protected place to deposit that knowledge. If we don’t have it, then our elders are going to die with that knowledge. Because if they’re not finding a place, our young people won’t be able to access that knowledge.” – Reg Crowshoe, Treaty 7 Elder

Read our Elder’s Declaration here.

Our Envisioned Future

We believe our first responsibility is to the First Nations communities who utilize our data sets to improve health outcomes of their community members.
Community data return and data requests must be serviced promptly and accurately.
We are responsible to the communities in which we serve providing sound knowledge and support in all areas of research.
We must be ethical in all our work and be respectful of communities’ protocols and processes.
We are a credible research training centre easily accessible to all those we serve.
Our policies and protocols are founded on the principles of First Nations Cultural Knowledge and Traditional Ways of Knowing.
We incorporate a Research Ethics Board that informs and guides all research whether by First Nations or by non-First Nations.
We act as a data repository for our communities’ data and other data sets entrusted in our systems.
We are trusted and respected as Data Stewards by First Nations, with their community data. We provide competent management of their information systems in a just and ethical manner.
We are best practice in First Nations community-based participatory research.
We are proactive and committed to assisting First Nations communities’ development of protocols and policies in information management.
We engage and ensure that the deeper sciences of research (e.g. bio-sampling) are based on respect for First Nations cultural protocols and are ethical in practice.