Investigating Racism Measures Through an Indigenous Data Sovereignty Lens

It is the purpose of this chapter to critically evaluate, through an Indigenous Data Sovereignty (IDSov) lens, a variety of racism measures utilised within one of the most successful national (Australian) longitudinal studies engaging with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, that being the Footprints in Time: Longitudinal Study of Indigenous Children (LSIC). The LSIC has engaged with a wide diversity of measures that cross many disciplines, and has currently extended for over 15 years of data collection centring on Indigenous children and their carers, families, and schools. This extensive longitudinal database should be celebrated as a pioneering example of ethical research that has profoundly and reciprocally engaged with Aboriginal and Torres Islander families and communities over time. Yet there have been times when the perspectives of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and non-Indigenous leadership within LSIC have not fully aligned. This chapter will focus on how this epistemic conflict may have impacted the application of varying measures of racism and discrimination within the LSIC surveys (and arguably contributed to epistemic racism itself). As a result, it will highlight the need for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander ownership, control, and governance over measures that are meant to represent our lived experiences today.