Projects and Initiatives

To promote equitable access to information and data about the Nicola Watershed, the NWGP developed the NWGP qʷu̓ʔ, siwɬkʷ (water) Data Portal. The NWGP qʷu̓ʔ, siwɬkʷ (water) Data Portal is a collaborative platform designed to store and share qʷu̓ʔ, siwɬkʷ (water) -related data and information, information that can be vital to the government-to-government (G2G) decision-making process of the NWGP.

The portal serves as a repository for governments and groups who wish to contribute and share data while maintaining ownership and control. At the foundation of the NWGP qʷu̓ʔ, siwɬkʷ (water) Data Portal are the First Nations Principles of OCAP® (Ownership, Control, Access, Possession). This means that any data shared on the Data Portal remains owned by the contributor (Ownership) who controls what is shared and how it is used (Control) and who can access it (Access), all while the data is securely stored by the NWGP (Possession). The NWGP qʷu̓ʔ, siwɬkʷ (water) Data Portal was designed for governments and groups to manage their own data in a way that works best for them.

Learn about the First Nations Principles of OCAP® here.

Data is contributed by a diversity of governments and groups including local, provincial, federal, and Indigenous governments, NGOs, consultants, and industry. This results in an accessible centralized location for the knowledge available in the region.

Currently under development, the NWGP qʷu̓ʔ, siwɬkʷ (water) Data Portal will be the central place to access qʷu̓ʔ, siwɬkʷ (water) -related data and information for the Nicola Watershed. The Data Portal makes space for both Indigenous and Western ways of knowing by bringing together data and information on water quality and quantity, groundwater and snow surveys, Indigenous Knowledge, archival documents, oral histories, Indigenous laws, protocols, and policies.

As this Data Portal is designed to securely store data and information including in the form of Indigenous Knowledge, it is searchable by tags in Nłeʔkepmx and syilx languages, Nłeʔkepmxcin and nsyilxcən, as well as English.

As the central repository for qʷu̓ʔ, siwɬkʷ (water) -related data and information in the Nicola Watershed, data and information is made accessible to the Nicola Five First Nations and the NWGP based on what they decide to share and with whom it gets shared. While the Data Portal is in place to promote equitable access to information, it also maintains data sovereignty. This means that at the decision of each contributor, their data and information may be kept private. This is especially important for cultural heritage information that is being hosted on the Data Portal as a repository to be accessed by the contributor and those they intend to share it with, but not meant to be shared publicly due to cultural sensitivities.

This work is closely aligned with the NWGP’s foundational pillar of reconciliation by supporting data sovereignty.
Nłeʔkepmx and syilx people have collected and managed data and knowledge on the lands and waters in the Nicola Watershed for thousands of years while caring for these lands and waters. The NWGP qʷu̓ʔ, siwɬkʷ (water) Data Portal provides the mechanism to support local Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities to govern their own data and information.