48-1 Indigenizing Emerging Technologies

La Nación Heiltsuk en Bella Bella, Columbia Británica, Canadá, está integrando el conocimiento tradicional en una herramienta basada en IA para rastrear la migración del salmón y ayudarlos a hacer valer sus derechos sobre la tierra y administrar los recursos pesqueros en sus territorios. El Coordinador del Programa de Radio de Derechos Indígenas, Shaldon Ferris (Khoisan), habló recientemente sobre el proyecto con William Housty (Heiltsuk), Director Asociado del Departamento de Gestión Integrada de Recursos de Heiltsuk.

En nuestra época de grandes saltos tecnológicos, la Inteligencia Artificial puede parecer a la vez temible e inspiradora, no menos para los Pueblos Indígenas que buscan proteger a sus comunidades de peligros potenciales, pero que también tienen acceso a los beneficios de tales avances en sus propios términos.

¿Dónde estaremos nosotros, los Pueblos Indígenas del mundo, en la era de la inteligencia artificial? ¿Cuál será nuestra situación cuando la Inteligencia Artificial se convierta en una realidad cotidiana para aquellos de nosotros, los “otros”, que hemos quedado fuera de las habitaciones, las historias y los recuerdos? Históricamente oprimidos y políticamente privados de sus derechos, los Pueblos Indígenas han servido como sujetos de prueba durante siglos de silenciamiento y deshumanización sistémicos.

The age of the merging of the human experience with technology is upon us; that inevitable slope of what is produced by the mind intertwined with a soul vs. the mind of a machine taught by a soul. As a 32-year-old visual artist/activist from Cape Town, I feel the century’s urge to create at the speed of light and an urgent shift in the way we pursue our collective healing, made more pressing following the devastating impact that 300 years of colonization and 46 years of Apartheid has had on the people of South Africa.

Many Indigenous languages do not have a large canon of written literature, and because of that, they are often and wrongly referred to as oral languages. Every Indigenous culture has its own form of literature and means of conveying knowledge through its language; most Indigenous languages have had a written form, often with a non-alphabetical system that was eradicated by colonization. In recent decades, many Indigenous Peoples have resumed their written tradition, either through recovering their ancient writing systems or by adapting to the alphabet of the colonial language dominant in their region.

Lilian Nguracha Balanga (Samburu) is from the traditionally pastoralist community of Samburu in the North Rift in north-central Kenya. The community moves from place to place in search of pasture and water but now also does some small-scale organic farming. In Samburu culture, wildlife stewardship is entrusted to women, who share with their community where wildlife and other resources are most prominent. Four years ago, Nguracha founded Women Conserve, a grassroots organization based in Samburu that works to elevate women’s leadership and voices in environmental conservation through providing access to education and tools to protect their animals and local environments. She continues that work through the development of the Naapu Ntomonok (Uplifting Women) App.

Maaxïnkojm/Santa María Ocotepec is the name of my town. Located in the Sierra Mixe in the state of Oaxaca, Mexico, it is a community on the slopes of the sacred Cempoaltepetl Mountain with a population of approximately 300 people. Maaxïnkojm is situated among banana groves and citrus trees; it is a town with a lot of vegetation because it rains almost all year round. The language we speak is Ayöök and belongs to the Mixe-Zoque linguistic family.

It’s 2010, late into the night, and my best friend and I load up a multiplayer game of “Gears of War 2” to play deathmatches into the next morning. While it was just the two of us, we were never alone—Tai Kaliso was always there as well. With his mohawk, facial tattoos, heavy accent, and dark brown skin, there was another Indigenous person in the room, shining bright through the pixelated screen of the television.