Hi there,
For places where .Data.Pages do not work, use .Site.Recent (Hugo v0.12) or .Site.Pages (Hugo v0.13-DEV on). See http://gohugo.io/templates/variables/ for more information.
But of course, if you do not yet have any pages inside the content/ directory, then neither .Data.Pages nor .Site.Recent/.Site.Pages would show anything. 