Indigenous Data Sovereignty, Repatriation and the Biopolitics of DNA

This chapter brings together the experience and expertise of Indigenous and non-Indigenous scholars from law, cultural studies, philosophy, archaeology and education. We trace the complex interactions between contemporary DNA research, the Indigenous repatriation movement and Indigenous sovereignties. The emerging application of DNA data in the repatriation of Indigenous ‘human remains’ from colonising institutions to Indigenous Nations raises challenging questions: What are the continuities in this scientific intervention into the lives of Indigenous Peoples, and what are the discourses and narratives surrounding the interactions between scientists, Indigenous Nations and non-Indigenous institutions? How do concepts such as ‘race’, colonialism, governmentality, data and authenticity circulate and materialise in these interactions between Indigenous Nations and settler States? How might DNA data impact the negotiations of new treaties in settler nations such as Australia, and how has this issue been navigated in settler spaces where treaties with Indigenous Nations already exist? We consider the strategies that Indigenous scientists, leaders and scholars, often fluent in Indigenous knowledge systems, are applying in this fast-moving, data-gathering system of identity and politics. The chapter argues that Indigenous expressions and practices of sovereignty are central in creative negotiations between medical science, collecting institutions and Indigenous Nations.