Indigenous-led responsible innovation: lessons from co-developed protocols to guide the use of drones to monitor a biocultural landscape in Kakadu National Park, Australia

Abstract

The scholarship and practice of responsibly navigating the disruptive possibilities of new technologies has yet to fully consider Indigenous worldviews. We draw on Indigenous-led research in northern Australia's Kakadu National Park to reflect on research practices for responsibly navigating the introduction of aerial drones as a tool for local Indigenous co-managers to monitor and manage this World Heritage Area. We co-developed protocols to guide Indigenous-led innovationempowering Indigenous governance, developing ethical and trusted research relationships, and enabling on-going Indigenous-led technological innovation. The protocols were applied to negotiate and navigate the use of drone technology at Jarrangbarnmi, an important biocultural landscape in country owned by Jawoyn people in northern Australia. These protocols provide a way for Indigenous cultural responsibilities for knowledge sharing and stewardship of country to guide and authorise the co-design and application of technological innovations, which are increasingly being used to produce new knowledge to adaptively co-manage Indigenous people's lands and seas.

Drone imagery to create a common understanding of landscapes

“…In a world where information means power, access to drone imagery can empower people from socially more vulnerable groups. Our results provide evidence for previously suggested uses of drones for empowering local governance and enabling knowledge sharing for co-development of land stewardship (Macdonald et al, 2021). The oblique images, as stills and videos, seem to be very suitable for such uses as shown by our classification exercise.…”

Responsible digital agri‐food innovation in Australian and New Zealand public research organisations

“…Some of us focus on the challenges and opportunities for practicing RI in agri-food research and innovation, including in interdisciplinary digital agtech development and deployment projects (e.g. Espig et al, 2020;Fielke et al, 2019Fielke et al, , 2020Fielke et al, , 2021Fleming et al, 2018Fleming et al, , 2021Jakku et al, 2018Jakku et al, , 2022Macdonald et al, 2021;Robinson et al, 2021b;Stitzlein et al, 2020Stitzlein et al, , 2021. Others are involved in broader RI-related programmes, including in strategic leadership positions.…”

“…While increasingly recognised, these obligations are only sporadically integrated into core R&D processes. This similarly applies in Australia, where Indigenous communities are co‐designing protocols to navigate the disruptive possibilities of new technologies (Macdonald et al., 2021; Robinson et al., 2021b). Indigenous peoples should thus be included more systematically and constructively to meet a variety of human needs, traditional rights, and envisioned development agendas.…”

The Making of Responsible Innovation and Technology: An Overview and Framework

“…[ [67][68][69] Technically, innovation and technology should be able to integrate with existing technologies and leverage new opportunities to capture all the potential benefits, such as increased work flexibility, productivity gains, and so on [4]. Marketable products must be reliable and robust to deal with complex operating environments under real-world conditions [63,64].…”