Systemic Data Governance Needed: Australia's AI Training Must Integrate Indigenous Sovereignty, Historical Lessons, and Global South Voices

Indigenous data sovereignty asserts that communities retain ownership, control, access, and possession of their data, challenging the assumption that publicly scraped internet content is free for AI training. The OCAP principles, developed by First Nations in Canada, and similar frameworks among Aboriginal Australians, provide concrete mechanisms for benefit‑sharing and consent. Applying these principles would require AI developers to negotiate data use with Indigenous groups, allocate royalties, and support community‑controlled data repositories.