[Fourth in a series] – 1 2 3 4

From lukasa, wiigwaasabakoon, and wampum belts, we can begin to extrapolate certain characteristics of Indigenous knowledge germane to the design of ICTs used as memory technologies. The Indigenous technologies are coupled with a practice that is often sacred or protected, ritualized, negotiated through social relationships. They are flexible and symbolic, rather than static and literal, involving active interpretation which has as much to do with remembering as it does re-creating and forgetting. As such, “there is no one-to-one correlation of sign to signified; readings may change, depending on the setting, the participants, and the text’s purpose. And the secrets themselves are always changing, for they depend on their social context” (Nooter, citing Barth 1975). They are situated within other cultural traditions such as oral performance and require special custodial care from people trained in special practices. They are also works of art, crafted from local materials tied to the land and history of the people to which they belong.

These characteristics stand in stark contrast to the ICTs presently used in cultural conservation efforts. Many modern ICTs used as memory technologies tend to foster individualism (i.e. computers are designed for single users), ex situ conservation, literalism (i.e. facts stored in databases, removed from narrative or proverbial structures), and are housed in ways that are not conducive to communal sharing. They are mass-produced from materials that hold no special value as cultural artifacts, and often maintained by people who may not have a direct cultural stake in their maintenance. Because of the desire in Westernized cultures for precision in storing information, ICTs are ill-equipped to handle vague, associative, purposefully obfuscated, context-dependent cultural knowledge.

What then must ICT design be like to reflect the nature of Indigenous knowledge? That question was the focus of a 2007 workshop convened by the Native Science Academy. During the workshop, a group member who was a 5th generation carver created a Pukea – a spirit caller, a long trumpet-like instrument. The participants perceived an “animate” quality about the Pukea, something intangible that separated it from other mundane objects such as a laptop or cell phone. They recognized that Indigenous technologies, such as the Pukea “have intrinsic value because we know their ancestry, where they came from, we know their place in our world and we know they will transform and return to the realms of the energies.” In other words, the Pukea “will not find itself discarded in a landfill, replaced by something sleeker and faster” (von Thater-Braan, 7).

Implicit in the realization the participants had is the connection between the human and the creation of the technology. This is not to suggest that Indigenous peoples must build their own modern ICTs by hand out of natural materials, but their participation in the development of new technologies is important to consider. Von Thater-Braan notes that “an Indigenous Information Technology is one in which the tools are in proper relationship with the community, the tools function correctly in the community ecology, and support the community’s future. Design, management and use of technology is a conscious relationship” (15). That conscious relationship should not start at the introduction of a computer terminal into a learning center, but in the design phase of the ICT. Indigenous technologies serve specific functions within the community. Those functions could serve to steer the kinds of interactions a particular technology offers. Instead of creating a database on a computer system in an attempt to meet the needs of a particular culture, the people of a particular culture should be informing the process of system design as a whole from conception.

This idea runs counter to the methods by which technology is created in Westernized cultures. We expect that, say, a cell phone will serve a mass audience – and its design is meant to have the broadest appeal and offer the widest functionality possible. We don’t build a cell phone to meet only the specific needs of a 300-member Indigenous tribal group in the Democratic Republic of Congo. We might tailor a database in an attempt to to meet a group’s needs, but we don’t design a special computer just for them. Yet, this kind of localized development would begin to field some of the concerns addressed above. By placing the emphasis of the human computer interaction on the human first, the development of memory technologies stands a greater chance at minimizing the implicit cultural hegemony addressed at the beginning of this essay. On one level, the idea of a sacred computer seems odd – yet consider the potential for true cultural conservation efficacy if such a system were created: an ICT memory technology that is not concerned with Western ways of knowing, that is responsive to layered social relationships, one imbued with the animate nature of a Pukea.

This new direction for design is necessarily speculative. So many factors weigh against it: cost, present design practices, shortcomings of human cultural understanding, etc. And yet, with the advent of semantic web technologies, universal Internet and mobile network access, virtual technologies, and Indigenous familiarity with modern ICTs, it is possible to begin seeing the creation of memory technologies that are responsive to and designed according to Indigenous knowledge – and which move away from computer-mediated colonialism toward computer-mediated liberation for people working to sustain and stimulate their culture.

Works cited:

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Ellen, Roy and Harris, Holly. Concepts of indigenous environmental knowledge in scientific and development studies literature: A critical assessment. Accessed at http://lucy.ukc.ac.uk/Rainforest/SML_files/Occpap/indigknow.occpap_5.html on November 5, 2009.

Ess, Charles. “Questioning the Obvious? Ethical and Cultural Dimensions of CMC and ICTs.” Springfield: Drury University, 2004. Accessed at URL http://funredesw.org/LC/documentos/Questioning_the_obvious.pdf on 1 May 2009.

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Hoffman, Walter James. The Mide’wiwin or “Grand Medicine Society” of the Ojibwa. Seventh Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1885-1886. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1891.

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Landzelius, Kyra. Postscript: Vox Populi from the Margins? K. Landzelius (ed.), Native on the net: Indigenous and diasporic peoples in the virtual age. London & New York: Routledge, 2006.

Memory Board (Lukasa) [Democratic Republic of Congo; Luba] (1977.467.3). In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–. Accessed at http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/ahis/ho_1977.467.3.htm on 1 December 2009.

Nooter, Mary H. Secrecy, African Art That Conceals and Reveals. The Visual Language of Secrecy. New York: Museum for African Art, 1993.

Pacey, Arnold. The Culture of Technology. Cambridge: MIT Press, 1983.

Sidis, William James. The Tribes and the States. Unpublished manuscript. Accessed at http://www.sidis.net/TSChap3bw.htm on 2 December 2009.

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Verran, Helen, Christie, Michael, Anbins-King, Bryce, Van Weeren, Trevor and Yunupingu, Wulumdhuna , (2007) ‘Designing digital knowledge management tools with Aboriginal Australians’, Digital Creativity, 18:3, 129 – 142

von Thater-Braan, Rose. Is it possible to have Information Technology that reflects Indigenous Consciousness? Native Science Academy: 2007.