Digital territories: Entwining technology with Indigenous knowledges

Paper Title

Digital Territories: Entwining Technology with Indigenous Knowledges

Publication Info

• Topic area: Indigenous knowledge systems and participatory design in digital technologies.
• Keywords: Indigenous data sovereignty, participatory design, cosmovision, Masewal People, community-led databases, Nahuatl language, decolonial computing, Buen Vivir, relational accountability, digital autonomy.

Background and Problem

• Problem / challenge: Mainstream digital technologies often decontextualize knowledge, neglecting cultural values and promoting extractive practices. Indigenous groups face risks of losing control over their knowledge and data sovereignty.
• Significance: Indigenous communities require technological frameworks that preserve their autonomy, cultural identity, and relational ties to the land, while resisting extractive practices.
• Motivation and related work: Prior research has explored Indigenous data sovereignty and decolonial computing, but much of it is focused on the Global North. This paper addresses the underrepresentation of Global South Indigenous communities, specifically the Masewal People, in technological autonomy efforts.

Solution

• Proposed approach: Taewaloni, a community-led database designed to reflect the practices, values, and cosmologies of the Masewal People, using metaphors of sowing, growing, and harvesting.
• Novelty:
  1. Integration of Masewal cosmovision and agricultural metaphors into database design.
  2. Creation of exploratory roles and assemblies for collective data governance.
  3. Use of Nahuatl language as a protective mechanism against extractivism.
  4. Reimagining Indigenous self-organization practices in digital spaces.
• Procedure and key techniques:
  • Collaborative workshops with Masewal participants to explore metaphors of sowing, growing, and harvesting data.
  • Development of roles like Taixpehpenkeh (data promoter), Tahpianij (data council), and Tajtol Ewke (knowledge guardian).
  • Conceptualization of assemblies for communal governance, inspired by Masewal practices like faena, barter, and tamakepalis.

Results

• Concrete findings:
  • Participants emphasized the importance of using Nahuatl for preserving identity and preventing extractivism.
  • Proposed roles and assemblies reflect traditional Masewal governance and communal labor systems.
  • Data sovereignty was linked to physical infrastructure, such as community-controlled servers.
• Advantage over baselines: The approach embeds Indigenous values and relational accountability into technology, challenging Western epistemologies and extractive practices.
• Experiments / evaluation:
  • Three collaborative workshops with 15 participants, integrating agricultural metaphors into database design.
  • Iterative feedback and analysis of participant contributions.
  • Demographic diversity included Nahuatl speakers and non-Indigenous collaborators.
• Limitations and future work:
  • Elders were underrepresented in workshops; future work aims to engage them and other community members.
  • Further exploration of the balance between digital representation and traditional oral transmission.

Summary

This study presents Taewaloni, a community-led database co-designed with the Masewal People, integrating their cosmovision, language, and agricultural metaphors into digital practices. Workshops explored roles and assemblies for data governance, emphasizing collective care, autonomy, and resistance to extractivism. Findings highlight the importance of Nahuatl language and physical infrastructure for preserving identity and sovereignty. While the approach is deeply contextualized, it offers transferable insights for Indigenous data sovereignty and participatory design. Future work will deepen engagement with elders and explore broader applications of land-based knowledge systems in technology.