Join our workshop @ COMPASS 2025! 

Wednesday, July 23rd: Toronto, Canada

July 10, 2025 is the last day to register for COMPASS at https://compass.acm.org/registration-2025/.

Those with existing registration may apply for this workshop up until July 15, 2025. 

There is no additional cost to join a workshop.

About the workshop: Indigenous peoples are essential for protecting biodiversity, preserving traditional knowledge, and realizing a sustainable future. However, Indigenous voices are rarely included in research communities and often ignored or excluded in Western views of sustainability. This one-day workshop will address this challenge by bringing together researchers, Indigenous community members, and activists to work together in an interdisciplinary hackathon to design sustainable technologies for and with Indigenous communities. Hackathon activities will focus on designing sensor-based technologies, data-driven solutions, community-centered approaches, and data governance principles. The workshop will provide an opportunity for participants to build community, discuss design considerations for Indigenous technology, and produce white papers to share designs and discussions.

Workshop goals:

1. Identify real-world issues Indigenous communities face that can be supported through technology

2. Brainstorm and disseminate design approaches that can support Indigenous efforts, culture, and values

3. Account for design tensions such as data governance, colonization, and environmental costs

4. Discuss and disseminate takeaways for a broader audience

5. Synthesize ideas into future plans for collaborations beyond the workshop

6. Develop strategies to encourage collaborations and partnerships between researchers, practitioners, Indigenous community members, and other actors for whom Indigenous technology can be a means to achieve sustainability

Tentative Agenda

9.00-9.30: Welcome, introductions, ice breaker

9.30-10.30: Short presentations by Toronto-area Indigenous community members

10.30-11.00: Coffee break

11.00-12.00: Group breakout, brainstorm designs in groups

12.00-13.00: Lunch

13.00-15.00: Small group activity: Work on designs

15.00-15.30: Coffee break

15.30-16.30: Small group activity; Document design decisions, tensions, and discussion in white papers

16.30-17.00: Large group discussion, next steps, closing remarks

Land Acknowledgement

We wish to acknowledge this land on which the University of Toronto operates. For thousands of years it has been the traditional land of the Huron-Wendat, the Seneca, and the Mississaugas of the Credit. Today, this meeting place is still the home to many Indigenous people from across Turtle Island and we are grateful to have the opportunity to work on this land.

We recognize that not all original peoples of this land have a voice in this workshop and conference. We commit to sharing out the results and work of this workshop firstly to Indigenous land stewards and water protectors, and then allies and collaborators.