After years of trying to improve access to digital technologies for Indigenous communities in British Columbia, the First Nations Technology Council is launching a process to create a far-reaching digital equity strategy for the province to bridge its digital divide.

“I am so pleased to announce that after a decade of effort to position Indigenous People’s leadership as central to the advancement of digital society, we can now celebrate that the Indigenous Digital Equity Strategy is in motion,” said Denise Williams, First Nations Technology Council CEO in a release Wednesday.

The Indigenous Digital Equity Strategy Project will be co-led by the First Nations Technology Council and Indigenous communities — including elders and youth — as well as private sector companies and representatives from the B.C. and federal governments. Over the next year, the Council expects to assemble experts and rights holders to build this Strategy.  

By 2023, the Council and its co-creators hope to create a Strategy that ensures all Indigenous Peoples can, according to a statement, “access and effectively use technology to contribute, thrive, and succeed in today’s digital society while preserving self-determination.”

Indigenous communities, especially those in remote regions, face a multitude of problems getting access to high-speed broadband internet. More than two-thirds of on-reserve homes don’t have it. According to Mark Buell, vice president for North America at the Internet Society, less than half of Nunavut’s households have download speeds of 5 megabytes per second — just a tenth of the government’s 50 MBps target. (The Council says just 38 percent of Indigenous communities in B.C. meet this target). Meanwhile, the average download speed across all of B.C. is 34.5 MBps.

Williams told Future of Good the needs of Indigenous communities were getting more complex by the year, and that simply reaching out to provincial or federal departments without any overarching strategy for tackling digital inequity wouldn’t help. “We’d reached this point where we realized that the landscape, when it comes to technology and community need, is far beyond what we could really provision for as a small not-for-profit to try and make an impact on service delivery,” Williams says.  

Programs like Innovate B.C.’s Digital Skills for Youth program, which offers employers up to $25,500 to subsidize digital skills training for young hires, are becoming more common. But Williams says these types of initiatives are designed by governments and the private sector without significant Indigenous involvement. Plus, Canada’s expensive telecommunications plans, data caps in rural areas, and a shift towards virtual services during the COVID-19 pandemic are making the issue of digital inequity more apparent for Indigenous Peoples.

The Council is trying to not only address these longstanding inequities, but weave in the idea of self-determination and autonomy to improve digital access for Indigenous communities. According to its website, the Council wants the Strategy to focus on six key focus areas: connectivity and infrastructure, skills development, employment and business development, tech and innovation leadership, policy and legislation, and governance and self-determination.

What exactly do they have in mind for this Strategy? Williams says that is hard to predict at this stage in the game. Organizations like the First Nations Health Authority and the Urban Native Youth Association, institutions like the Nicola Valley Institution of Technology, and B.C. First Nations like the Xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam) and the Tsilhqot’in National Government will be shaping it over the coming months and years. “I think, ultimately, what we want to see happen is that all Indigenous Peoples have equal and affordable access,” she says, “and our rights are upheld in digital society.”

In other countries, Indigenous Peoples have been able to assert their rights over digital infrastructure and tools. The Māori, in New Zealand, now own wireless spectrum alongside land and other treaty rights. But Williams says Indigenous communities don’t just want better access to digital tools; they also want to bring their own thinking about technology to the wider world. “I think an Indigenous worldview can be very helpful in thinking more sustainably and more ethically – potentially, morally — about who this impacts,” she says.

Over the years the Council spent speaking with Indigenous communities about their digital needs, Williams learned they don’t just want to get connected or have access to tech training programs. They want to be at the forefront of technological change. “The resounding message has been that Indigenous people want to have the time, space, resources, and right to lead what this looks like for them — and for future generations,” she says.

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