Self Determination Assessment - Introduction & Context

Learning Prep:

Introduction & Context

INSTRUCTIONS: Read through introduction and additional context. Take note of what additional readings or background you might investigate further in your decolonizing work.

Introduction

Founded in 2020 amid COVID-19 and racial uprisings, IHEI emerged from community need and advocacy. That moment laid bare what Indigenous communities already knew: public health systems—and the data infrastructures that steer them—were not built for us. Missing, misclassified, or non-collected race and ethnicity data rendered Native peoples unseen and unprotected, with real consequences for care and resources.

This is part of a longer Indigenous analysis: systems built on settler colonial logics cannot protect Indigenous peoples because they normalize our erasure. Colonial data systems routinely produce deficit narratives and invisibility; UIHI defines these harms as data genocide—the elimination and weaponization of (missing or misused) data against AI/AN communities. As Jacob and Gonzales write, “equity is unimaginable and justice is impossible within these frameworks” — frameworks rooted in white supremacy, capitalism, and heteropatriarchy that continue to erase Indigenous presence and values.

IHEI’s creation represents a refusal of that erasure and an assertion of Indigenous resurgence in public health. Grounded in Indigenous cultural values — love, humility, generosity, relational accountability, and respect — our work resists deficit narratives and reclaims data and health as tools of collective self-determination. As Simpson reminds us, resurgence is not simply resistance; it is the rebuilding of worlds. “Indigenous resurgence… means centering grounded normativity — the systems of ethics continuously generated by a relationship with land — as flight paths or fugitive escapes from the violences of settler colonialism”.

From this vision, the Self-Determination Assessment & Advocacy Tool was born—both a mirror and a map: a mirror to see where colonial systems still shape public health and a map to replace them with Indigenous-led governance and practice. It lifts up community non-negotiables and situates self-determination—not “inclusion”—as the measure of justice.

Addressing Colonialism for Health & Data Justice

Colonialism remains a powerful determinant of Indigenous health and wellbeing. Across the world, Indigenous Nations continue to experience health inequities rooted in colonial structures—policies, research systems, and data practices that exclude, erase, or harm Indigenous peoples.The tool explicitly names colonialism, emphasizing settler colonialism, and its manifestations such as epistemicide, and data genocide, and moves institutions beyond performative allyship toward material power shift, accountability, and relational repair.

IHEI recognizes that Indigenous self-determination is the foundation of health equity. True liberation requires shifting from reforming colonial systems to transforming them. As noted in IHEI’s Self-Determination and Indigenous Health Equity Framework (2022), systems change must be guided by Indigenous knowledge, language, and relational ethics rather than Western hierarchies or compliance measures.

This tool, grounded in Indigenous values and informed by community review sessions, provides a concrete way to assess and advocate for Indigenous leadership and sovereignty in data justice and public health.

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