With many island taxa groups teetering on the edge of extinction, conservation efforts must expand past nature preserves and into our working landscapes. Indigenous peoples residing on islands have cultivated abundant and biodiverse ecosystems since time immemorial. The rise of metagenomics and high-throughput sequencing technologies to characterize biodiversity has rapidly expanded the scale of data collection and generation from these lands. A respectful and informed approach to the data life cycle grounded in the sovereignty of Indigenous communities is imperative to not perpetuate harm. Here, we operationalize Indigenous data sovereignty to outline workflow considerations that spans the collection, governance, communication, and storage aspects of genomic data. As a case study for this workflow, we utilize metabarcoding data collected within a Kānaka ʻŌiwi (Indigenous Hawaiian) agroecosystem to characterize how arthropod communities shift in relation to crop diversification, while discussing realistic considerations researchers must make in their data’s life cycle – from developing research questions to sharing results. Through this example, we emphasize the context-dependent opportunities and challenges for operationalizing Indigenous data sovereignty. In addition, we present our metabarcoding data showing diversified farms have higher native arthropod richness in comparison to simplified farms, as well as the role Kānaka ʻŌiwi crops have in shaping a unique assemblage of arthropods. Overall, the workflow and the example presented here can help researchers take tangible steps to achieve data sovereignty, a goal that often seems elusive.
