SIKU: The Indigenous Knowledge APP Empowers Northern Indigenous Communities to Initiate and Participate in Regional Geospatial Efforts in Support of Environmental Stewardship and Self-determination

My Session Status
What:
Talk
When:
2:00 PM, Wednesday 14 May 2025
(30 minutes)
Where:
Ottawa Conference and Event Centre
- GEOINT
GEOINT
SIKU: THE INDIGENOUS KNOWLEDGE APP supports Indigenous self-determination and environmental stewardship through geospatial tools, products and services that enable individuals, communities and organizations to collect, process, analyze and use data. SIKU is created by The Arctic Eider Society, an Indigenous-led charity, and is designed to be accessible: it is available in multiple Indigenous languages, uses icons and a user-friendly design, and works offline and in low-bandwidth regions. SIKU is a platform available on iOS/Android apps and on the web (siku.org), with more than 32,000 users. Inuit and Indigenous Peoples across the Canadian Arctic, Greenland, Alaska and beyond who are accessing and using SIKU for various needs. This platform is first and foremost a tool for Indigenous harvesters, providing services for tracking land trips and harvesting activity, making decisions about data control, privacy and stewardship, and accessing Earth Observation, maps, and weather data. SIKU’s map services include the ability to view and contribute in-situ Indigenous observations made through the SIKU app, as well as access to a custom base map and up-to-date multispectral and radar satellite missions. Since 2024, SIKU users have downloaded 28 million satellite map tiles; this includes 14 million for Sentinel-2 layers and 10 million for radar layers (RCM and Sentinel-1). Furthermore, SIKU is also built to support Indigenous-led projects and data collection, helping improve Indigenous participation and leadership in research year-round while addressing gaps in data and mapping. Together, the app provides tools and services that prioritises support for cultural land based activities, Indigenous languages and knowledge transfer, as well as climate adaptations through technological advancements. Data created in SIKU is exportable in multiple spatial formats by stewards of the data. SIKU projects are typically Indigenous-led environmental monitoring and climate research projects, and user observations can be stewarded by project administrators. Individual users are also able to collect their own geospatial data in real-time, and can export their own data and assign stewardship to projects. Together, SIKU’s features and services increase access to geospatial data in the Canadian North, while reducing capacity challenges in environmental stewardship initiatives, such as guardians programs and climate adaptation projects.