Manifesto

Information management is core to how First Nations govern and operate, from membership and governance to grants, programs, finance, and reporting. Yet critical information is often fragmented across spreadsheets, databases, email, and documents, hosted outside the Nation’s control and dependent on big technology companies. This is mission-critical infrastructure. First Nations deserve tailored technology and sovereign infrastructure built around their institutions, priorities, and jurisdiction. Tsen’awt is building that capacity. 

Information management is core to how First Nations govern and operate, from membership and governance to grants, programs, finance, and reporting. Yet critical information is often fragmented across spreadsheets, databases, email, and documents, hosted outside the Nation’s control and dependent on big technology companies. This is mission-critical infrastructure. First Nations deserve tailored technology and sovereign infrastructure built around their institutions, priorities, and jurisdiction. Tsen’awt is building that capacity. 

Information management is core to how First Nations govern and operate, from membership and governance to grants, programs, finance, and reporting. Yet critical information is often fragmented across spreadsheets, databases, email, and documents, hosted outside the Nation’s control and dependent on big technology companies. This is mission-critical infrastructure. First Nations deserve tailored technology and sovereign infrastructure built around their institutions, priorities, and jurisdiction. Tsen’awt is building that capacity. 

Commitments

What we hold ourselves to.

Six positions we do not trade away. The first four are about whose authority these systems answer to. The last two are how we work. Each one costs us something, which is the only reason it is worth writing down.

Jurisdiction comes first

We establish who holds jurisdiction over the records before any feature list. For a self-governing Nation that authority is inherent: who reaches a record, and where it sits.

Consent you can withdraw

Consent that cannot be withdrawn is not free, prior and informed. We build withdrawal as an operation: access is revoked, processing stops, and the audit trail records both.

Title and rights govern

Land use, occupancy, harvesting and oral history are the evidentiary base for Aboriginal title and section 35 rights. Chain of custody and retention are specified at the start.

Owned and led by Nations

Tsen'awt is owned and led by First Nations title and rights holders, and belongs to the same community it serves. That goes beyond a partnership or supplier certification.

Nations set the direction

Every feature traces to something a Nation raised: a reporting deadline, an approval that stalls, a record nobody can find. We add nothing the work has not requested.

Infrastructure counts too

Data sovereignty means little if the hardware is rented. Open documented formats, commodity hardware, and encryption keys your staff hold, all running on a pod the Nation owns.

Team

Our team

Our team

Tsen'awt is built by First Nations entrepreneurs, technologists, information architects, and economic development specialists.

Ethan Clark

Chief Executive Officer + Founder

Ethan Clark

Chief Executive Officer + Founder

FAQs

Questions?

If the answer you need is not here, ask us directly. We would rather answer it once, properly.

Something not covered here?

Ask us directly.

Get in touch

Get in touch

Who is Tsen'awt for?

Indigenous governments and institutions in Canada: First Nations, Tribal Councils, Indigenous organizations and economic development corporations. The reference configuration is a First Nation government. The other segments differ structurally rather than cosmetically, and each needs its own base configuration.

Do you write the software yourselves?

What do you refuse to build?

Who holds the encryption keys?

How do you decide what to build next?

Is there a certification we can point a funder to?

How can we verify what you claim is true?