Kelle Dhein
In this talk, I encourage Indigenous supporters of IDS to adopt a skeptical stance towards some Western concepts that have come to occupy a central position within the IDS movement’s intellectual firmament. Specifically, I focus on the Western concepts of data, sovereignty, and rights. Western intellectual traditions have been developing these concepts since the so-called “European enlightenment”. As a result, these concepts have been saddled with much implicit baggage. I argue that this conceptual baggage matters to Indigenous proponents of IDS because it can subtly sabotage IDS. Put differently, I argue that concepts are tools for thinking, and that the Western tools of data, sovereignty, and rights need to be modified to accomplish the goals of IDS. To craft conceptual tools that are appropriate for IDS, Indigenous peoples can look back to their own intellectual, philosophical, and theoretical traditions. I conclude by describing some of my recent work on American Indian philosophy and how it might help modify Western concepts for IDS. This talk engages with Day 2 themes of “Data Futures: Looking Back Walking Forward” and “Governance of Data”.