How COYA Uses AI While Protecting Indigenous Data Sovereignty

At COYA, we believe Indigenous data is not just information. It is a sacred story, a relationship, and a legacy. Every time we use AI tools such as ChatGPT, we follow a clear protocol guided by our OCAP® + AI Compliance Commitment.

OCAP® stands for Ownership, Control, Access, and Possession. These principles ensure that communities maintain authority over their own data and narratives. AI can improve efficiency, but it must never replace human judgment, cultural protocols, or community authority.

COYA integrates AI responsibly by:

• Using COYA-owned frameworks, such as Rooted Action Analysis™, as the foundation for analysis.

• Working only with de-identified, theme-based summaries, never raw participant data

• Disclosing AI use transparently in all outputs.

• Ensuring all interpretation and sensemaking remain human-led, grounded in ceremony, consent, and community.

• Human judgment, cultural validation, and community authority always come first and last. AI is a support tool, not a decision-maker.

This framework is available for other Indigenous and social impact organizations that want to use AI ethically and safely.

You are invited to adopt and credit COYA’s OCAP® ChatGPT Compliance Commitment when building your own AI policy to protect community data and story sovereignty.

We think our ChatGPT prompt is pretty nifty, give it a try!

When we use technology in right relationship, we do more than innovate. We restore balance.

Learn more or request permission to adapt COYA’s OCAP® + AI Compliance framework: