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The aim of this paper is to document the operationalization of the OCAP^® principles in the context of the work of a medical anthropologist and Whapmagoostui First Nation (FN). The authors describe their recent collaboration with Whapmagoostui FN to digitize and transfer the research data archive to the community.

Beginning with a description of the data collection process from the late 1980s to early 1990s, this study describes recent efforts to digitize the research data archive and work with Whapmagoostui FN to develop a plan for access and safekeeping. The authors focus on the work required to implement the OCAP^® principles locally, including the need to address questions of ownership rights/transfer, information technology systems and community capacity.

This study describes the necessary work that is required to operationalize the OCAP^® principles on a local level, including obstacles to this work. This study also underscores how the process of OCAP^® implementation is distinct for each community and research context. Based on these considerations, the authors calls for increased resources and new legal mechanisms in support of achieving indigenous data sovereignty (IDSov) in FNs, Inuit and Métis communities across Canada.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study makes an original contribution to the literature on IDSov. This study provides a valuable case study, illustrating how the OCAP^® principles can be operationalized in the context of a longstanding partnership between an academic researcher and an indigenous community.

The purpose of this paper is to show that the digital environment of the early twenty‐first century is forcing the information sciences to revisit practices and precepts built around paper and physical objects over centuries. The training of archivists, records managers, librarians and museum curators has had to accommodate this new reality. Often the response has been to superimpose a digital overlay on existing curricula. A few have taken a radical approach by scrutinising the fundamentals of the professions and the ontologies of the materials they handle.

The article explores a wide range of the issues exposed by this critique through critical analysis of ideas and published literature.

The authors challenge archive and records management educators to align their curricula with contemporary need and to recognise that partnership with other professionals, particularly in the area of technology, is essential.

The present generation owe it to future generations of archivists and records managers to ensure that the education that they get to prepare them for professional life is forward‐looking in the same way.

This paper aims to raise awareness of the educational needs of twenty‐first century archives and records professionals.