Data Sovereignty in the Field: What Remote Sensing Operators Don't Understand About Indigenous Partnerships

Every resource sector RFP now includes Indigenous consultation requirements. Environmental impact assessments increasingly involve First Nations guardianship programs. ESG mandates have made Indigenous engagement a boardroom priority across the extractive industries.

And most drone operators treat it like a checkbox.

Show up. Fly. Leave. Send the invoice. Move on to the next project.

That approach might have been adequate five years ago. It's not anymore. UNDRIP implementation, expanding guardian programs, and fundamental shifts in how resource development happens in Canada mean that meaningful Indigenous partnership isn't optional; it's becoming central to how projects succeed or fail.

The remote sensing industry hasn't caught up to this reality. And the operators who figure it out first will have a significant competitive advantage.

The Guardian Program Expansion

In December 2025, the Government of Canada announced funding for 47 First Nations Guardian initiatives for 2025-2026, part of over $100 million invested since 2021 to support Indigenous-led environmental stewardship. This builds on the 80+ guardian programs funded during the initial pilot phase.

Guardian programs are Indigenous community members who serve as the 'eyes and ears on the ground' - monitoring ecological health, maintaining cultural sites, protecting sensitive areas and species, and exercising Indigenous rights and responsibilities in stewardship of traditional territories.

Here's what matters for remote sensing operators: these programs are increasingly incorporating technical monitoring tools, including drones. But they're doing it on their own terms, with their own protocols, according to their own governance structures.

Organizations like Indigenous Aerospace have emerged specifically to address this, working to empower Indigenous communities to fully participate in the RPAS industry through funding, training, and technology. Their founding principles include OCAP: Ownership, Control, Access, and Possession of data.

That acronym should matter to every remote sensing operator working on traditional territories.

The Data Sovereignty Question

When you fly a drone over traditional territory, you're collecting data. That data has value. It reveals information about the land, water, wildlife, and resources that Indigenous communities have stewarded for generations.

Who owns that data?

Most operators never think about this question. The contract says the client owns the deliverables. The client is the mining company, the pipeline operator, the environmental consultancy. Job done.

But data sovereignty isn't just about legal ownership. It's about who has access to information about traditional territories, who controls how that information is used, and whether the communities whose lands are being documented have meaningful involvement in what happens with that documentation.

Consider a practical example: You're contracted to conduct aerial surveys for a proposed resource development project. Your client is an environmental consultancy doing the impact assessment. You collect detailed imagery and LiDAR data showing terrain, vegetation, water features, wildlife movement patterns, and archaeological indicators.

That data ends up in a report that influences regulatory decisions about development on traditional territory. The affected First Nation may or may not see that data. They almost certainly won't have control over how it's interpreted or used.

This isn't about assigning blame. It's about recognizing that our industry operates within a broader context - and that context is changing rapidly.

What Meaningful Partnership Actually Looks Like

The Mi'gmaq and Wolastoqey guardians in Quebec's Gaspésie region recently launched a drone-based thermal mapping campaign to locate cold-water refuges critical for threatened Atlantic salmon. The project is Indigenous-led, working with the Mi'gmaq Wolastoqiyik Fisheries Management Association.

What makes it different from a typical contracted survey?

Guardians, community-based monitors deeply familiar with their territory, help navigate sensitive or sacred sites during data collection. Mapping flights respect cultural boundaries and traditional laws. The project is guided by the principle of Etuaptmumk, or 'two-eyed seeing', integrating Indigenous knowledge systems with technical monitoring capabilities.

The data serves Indigenous conservation priorities first. It strengthens Indigenous capacity to protect their own resources. The technology is a tool in service of community goals, not an external extraction of information.

For remote sensing operators, a meaningful partnership might look like:

Co-developing protocols. Not just consulting on operational plans, but genuinely building data collection approaches together. What areas should be avoided? What times of year are sensitive? What additional data would serve community monitoring needs?

Training community members. Building local capacity so communities can conduct their own monitoring—not creating permanent dependency on outside operators.

Data sharing agreements. Ensuring communities receive copies of data collected on their territories, in formats they can actually use.

Transparent communication about how data will be used, who will have access to it, and what decisions it might inform.

Respecting 'no' as an answer. Sometimes communities don't want certain areas surveyed. Sometimes they want to be involved in ways that complicate project timelines. Meaningful partnership means those concerns carry real weight.

Why This Matters for Your Business

There's a pragmatic case here, not just an ethical one.

Resource sector clients are increasingly evaluated on their Indigenous engagement. ESG reporting requirements are becoming more rigorous. Procurement policies are beginning to favour contractors who demonstrate meaningful Indigenous partnerships or capacity-building.

Projects that proceed without genuine Indigenous support face growing risks, regulatory delays, legal challenges, reputational damage, and in some cases, complete shutdown. Clients are increasingly aware that how they engage with Indigenous communities on technical work like remote sensing can affect their social license to operate.

Operators who understand this landscape, who can demonstrate track records of respectful engagement, who have relationships with Indigenous communities, and who approach projects with cultural awareness become more valuable partners.

The alternative is being the operator who shows up, flies, and leaves - and increasingly, that operator won't be the one getting called back.

What We've Learned

We've worked on projects involving traditional territories across Canada. We've made mistakes. We've learned from them. Here's what we've come to understand:

Relationships take time. You can't parachute into a community for a three-day project and expect meaningful partnership. The operators who do this well have invested years in building trust and understanding.

Every community is different. There's no template that works everywhere. What's appropriate in one territory may not be in another. What matters to one community may be irrelevant to the next. The only way to know is to ask—and listen.

Technical capability isn't enough. We can fly complex missions in challenging environments. That matters. But it matters less than whether we approach the work with respect, transparency, and genuine interest in community outcomes.

Capacity building is part of the work. The goal shouldn't be permanent dependency on outside operators. It should be transferring knowledge and skills so communities can exercise their own stewardship with modern tools if they choose to.

This isn't charity work. Indigenous communities aren't passive recipients of technical services. They're partners with knowledge, priorities, and governance structures that deserve respect. Approaching the work with a savior mentality isn't just offensive, it's counterproductive.

The Industry Gap

Most remote sensing operators have never thought seriously about any of this. They fly drones. They collect data. They deliver products. The client relationship is transactional.

That's not criticism, it's observation. The industry developed around technical capability, not community engagement. Training programs focus on aviation regulations and sensor technology, not cultural competency or data sovereignty frameworks.

But the context in which we operate is changing. Resource development in Canada increasingly requires Indigenous engagement that goes beyond consultation checkboxes. Environmental monitoring programs are increasingly Indigenous-led. Guardian programs are expanding their technical capabilities.

Operators who recognize this shift and position themselves accordingly will find growing opportunities. Operators who don't will increasingly find themselves shut out of the most significant projects.

Starting the Conversation

We don't claim to have this figured out. Nobody does. The intersection of remote sensing technology and Indigenous data sovereignty is new territory that everyone is navigating together.

But we believe the industry benefits from having these conversations openly. From acknowledging that our work has implications beyond the technical deliverables. From recognizing that how we operate on traditional territories matters, not just for the communities affected, but for the long-term viability of our industry.

The operators and clients who engage with these questions seriously will shape what Indigenous partnership looks like in remote sensing for years to come. The ones who treat it as a checkbox will find themselves increasingly irrelevant.

The choice is straightforward. The execution is harder. But that's true of everything worth doing in this industry.

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Aeria Solutions is a full-spectrum remote sensing company that works across Canada's diverse landscapes and communities. We're committed to building collaborative relationships grounded in transparency, safety, and shared outcomes—including with Indigenous communities and their partners.