Indigenous Technologies Syllabus

updated: 10/31/2022

Indigenous Technologies is a program of the Berkeley Center for New Media that engages questions of technology and new media in relation to global structures of indigeneity, settler colonialism and genocide in the 21st century. This syllabus was created by Indigenous Technologies staff members in coordination with the 2020-2021 History and Theory of New Media Lecture Series, which had the theme of “Indigenous Technologies.” ⭐ Want to recommend an addition to the syllabus? Write us through this Google Form.

Land Back/Land Stewardship

Recommended by Corrina Gould, co-founder of the Sogorea Te’ Land Trust

Event: A Conversation with the Sogorea Te’ Land Trust

• Video
• Transcript

Readings

• “Decolonization is not a metaphor” by Eve Tuck and Wayne K. Yang (2012)

Watch/Listen to

• The film “Beyond Recognition” is a great resource about sacred sites protection in the Bay Area

Mentioned During Event

• An American Genocide: The United States and the California Indian Catastrophe, 1846-1873 by Benjamin Madley (2016)
• A Time of Little Choice: The Disintegration of Tribal Culture in the San Francisco Bay Area 1769-1810 by Randall Milliken (1995)

Indigenous Cyberspace

Recommended by Skawennati, Artist & Co-Director of Aboriginal Territories in Cyberspace

Event: World Rebuilding: Aboriginal Territories in Cyberspace and the Initiative for Indigenous Futures

• Video
• Transcript

Watch/Listen to

• She Falls for Ages (2016): a machinima by Skawennati. This sci-fi retelling of the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) creation story reimagines Sky World as a futuristic, utopic space and Sky Woman as a brave astronaut and world-builder.
• Readings: The Myth of the Earth Grasper influenced me in this work, as did the book Childhood's End by Arthur C. Clarke (1953)
  TimeTravellerTM: a nine-episode machinima series developed by Skawennati between 2008 and 2013 in the virtual world Second Life.
  Readings: The book Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson (1992) greatly influenced me in this machinima.

• “Imagining the Next Seven Generations,” Skawennati at TEDxMontrealWomen. Cinema Imperial, Montreal, QC. (30 May 2015)

Indigenous Cyber-relationality and social networking

Recommended by Marisa Duarte, Assistant Professor, Arizona State University

Event: Indigenous Cyber-relationality: Discerning the Limits and Potential for Connective Action

• Video
• Transcript

Readings

• “Indigitechs: The Original Time-Space Traveling Native Americans and Our Modern World Hyper-Pow-Wow” by Natanya Ann Pulley, Western Humanities Review (2014)
• “Seals, Selfies, and the Settler State: Indigenous Motherhood and Gendered Violence in Canada” by Elizabeth Rule, American Quarterly (2018)

Wildfire Ecologies

Recommended by Margo Robbins and Valentin Lopez

Event: A Conversation on Wildfire Ecologies

• Video
• Transcript

Watch/Listen to

• “Amah Mutsun Land Trust Fire Symposium,” Webinar on Native traditions of fire stewarding landscapes, featuring speakers on the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band’s practices, eco-archaeological research, and the revitalization of cultural burning. (20 Nov 2020)

• “Facing Fire: Building Resiliency to Wildfire,” Directed by Javan K. Bernakevitch. Documentary responding to the impact of the 2018 Wildfire Season in North America featuring interviews with experts on how we can manage our landscape with fire again. (2018)

Indigenous Games

Recommended by Elizabeth LaPensée, Assistant Professor, Michigan State University

Event: Indigenous Games

• Transcript

Watch/Listen to

• Indigenous Game Devs. https://www.indigenousgamedevs.com/
• Indigenous Interactive Media and Video Game Database maintained by Meagan Byrne.
• “When Rivers Were Trails: Cultural Expression in an Indigenous Video Game” by Elizabeth LaPensée in International Journal of Heritage Studies (2020).
• “SPEAR: A Framework for Indigenous Cultural Games” by Elizabeth LaPensée in ANTARES: Letras e Humanidades 12.28 (2020): 4-22.
• “Old Ways of Knowing, New Ways of Playing—The Potential of Collaborative Game Design to Empower Indigenous Sámi” dissertation by Outi Lati at the University of Lapland (2020).
• “Terra Nova: Enacting Videogame Development Through Indigenous-led Creation” master’s thesis by Maize Longboat at Concordia University (2019).
• "The Burden on Our Back: Conveying Nahua Survivance through Games"
• "Warriors and Weavers: The Poetics and Politics of Indigenous Appropriations of New Media Technologies in Latin America"
• "JOYSTICKS AND JAGUARS: Bribri-Inspired Games in Neoliberal Costa Rica"

Mentioned During Event

• Button City, Subliminal  (forthcoming 2021)
• Beyond Blue, E-Line Media (2020)
• Don’t Wake the Night, Santo Aveiro (2019)
• 1870: Cyberpunk Forever, Santo Aveiro (2018)
• Neofeud, Christian Miller (2017)
• Guardian Maia Episode 1, Maru Nihoniho, Metia Interactive
• Hill Agency, Meagan Byrne & Achimostawinan Games (forthcoming)
• Terra Nova, Maize Longboat & Ray Caplin (2019)
• Umurangi Generation, Naphtali Faulkner (2020)
• Thunderbird Strike, Elizabeth LaPensée (2017)
• When Rivers Were Trails, Indian Land Tenure Foundation (2019)
• Exquisite Ghost, Winnipeg-based Indigenous electronic artist and sonic experimenter
• Casey Koyczan, Tlicho Dene artist
• Grace L. Dillon, Indigenous scholar and author, Elizabeth LaPensée’s mother

Maori Film and Media

Recommended by Lisa Reihana, Artist

Event: How Can a Maori Girl Recolonise The Screen Using Mighty Pixels

• Transcript
• Video

Mentioned during event

• Ramai Hayward, Maori actor and filmmaker whose film career began in the 1940s
• Barry Barclay, “The Camera on the Shore” (2009)
• Tracey Moffatt, artist
• In Pursuit of Venus (multiple versions, 2012-17)— Reihana’s large scale video series
• Tai Whetuki - House of Death by Lisa Reihana (2016)
• Te Wai Ngunguru - Nomads of the Sea by Lisa Reihana (2016)

Xico,Mexico: Water Rights and Cultural Heritage

Recommended by Maria Thereza Alves, Artist

Event: Colonial Practices and Cultural Repression by the Municipality against the Community Museum of the Valle de Xico but “It is our 25th anniversary and we are still here.”

• Transcript
• Video
• Event write up by Jaclyn Tobia

Mentioned during event

• Museo Comunitario Del Valle De Xico: Facebook, Instagram

• Son del Pueblo / Of the People, 2020

• Son del Pueblo: Ceramics Project 

Beyond Settler Sex and Sexuality: Critical Non-monogamous Relating

Recommended by Kim TallBear, Professor, University of Alberta

Event: Beyond Settler Sex and Family: Kim TallBear in Conversation

• Transcript
• Video

Mentioned during event:

• “Identity is a poor substitute for relating,” by Kim TallBear,from The Routledge Handbook of Critical Indigenous Studies (2020)
• Scott Morgenson’s term “settler sexuality”
• Professor TallBear’s first book, Native American DNA: Tribal Belonging and the False Promise of Genetic Science (2013)
• Tipi Confessions, a live storytelling show about sex produced by three Indigenous women: University of Alberta professors Kim TallBear (Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate) and Tracy Bear (Nehiyaw’iskwew from Montreal Lake Cree Nation), and Native Studies PhD student Kirsten Lindquist (Cree-Métis).
• Dr. Natalie Loveless and “Creative informed research”
• Indigenous Studies scholar David Delgado Shorter on “sex as a form of power sharing”

• David Delgado Shorter (2015). Ch. 24 Sexuality. In The World of Indigenous North America. Robert Warrior (ed.). Routledge: 487-505.
• David Delgado Shorter (2016). Spirituality. In The Oxford Handbook of American Indian History. F.E. Hoxie (ed.) Oxford Univ. Press: 1-24.
• Kim TallBear’s Twitter thread on these linked essays: https://twitter.com/CriticalPoly/status/836222327864045568

• Melissa Nelson and Indigenous eco-erotics
• Playing Monogamy by Simon(e) Van Saarloos, translated by Liz Waters
• “The Revolution is My Personfriend: Dismantling the Romance Myth” with Dean Spade; Lecture at the Poetry Project scheduled for December 2, 2021

• Fraught Intimacies: Non/Monogamy in the Public Sphere by Nathan Rambukkana (2016)

• “Settler Love is Breaking My Heart” by Kim TallBear (2016)

Indigenous Science Against Climate Catastrophe

Yásnaya Elena Aguilar Gil, Linguist, writer, translator, language rights activist and researcher ayuujk (mixe)

Event: Tequiologies: Indigenous Solutions Against Climate Catastrophe

• Transcript (TK)
• Video

Mentioned during event

• Ää: Manifiestos sobre la diversidad lingüística, por Yásnaya Elena Aguilar Gil (2020)
• “iPhone fallacy” argument / ad hominem argument. For example: “If you’re against capitalism, then you shouldn’t be tweeting from your iPhone.”
• “Diversity technology” and “philosophies of reciprocity”: these small structures multiplied can create really different ways of being
• Tequio: A word used in Mexico that comes from Nahuatl language. Work that is collective, to have a better world. “There are words for collaborative work in a lot of different languages, but it’s the same technology of reciprocity.”
• Tequiologies: a way to think about technology that recuperates the idea that technology can be against capitalism, colonialism, patriarchy and capitalism, based on collaboration and reciprocity

Mauna Kea and the Mauna Movement

Recommended by Pua Case, Kumu Hula, teacher, aloha ʻāina protector

Event: Pua Case on Mauna Kea

• Transcript
• Video

Mentioned during event:

• Hula: a ritual, an extension of spirit through words, motion, and chant. “A dance form that locks you in…that is undeniable.” “Dance grounded us in our commitment to not let 18 stories be built.”  
• Ku Kia'i Mauna: Mauna Kea Jam. “How do we keep the movement going? Through the music.”
• “Standing Above the Clouds” Documentary (2021)
• Mount Shasta: Pua’s family traveled there on the advice of the Mauna and started a relationship with California’s indigenous communities.
• Kūkulu: The Pillars of Mauna ā Wākea is a traveling exhibition featuring art, music and messages of the Mauna Kea Movement. Coming to Northern California in 2023.
• Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation: A Palo Alto-based foundation that is the largest single donor to the TMT.
• National Science Foundation
• Protect Mauna Kea (Instagram): guide to current action

• NSF Comment Form: https://beta.nsf.gov/funding/environmental-compliance/thirty-meter-telescope/comment-scoping
• Petition: https://www.change.org/p/gordon-and-betty-moore-foundation-no-construction-of-the-tmt-telescope-on-mauna-kea?use_react=false

African Indigenous Technologies

Recommended by Gloria Emeagwali

Event: Digital Platforms and Ancient African Knowledge Systems: Triumphs and Vulnerabilities

• Transcript (TK)
• Video (TK)

Mentioned during event:

• Gloria’s website: https://africahistory.net/
• “The encoded ideologies of programmers and corporate owners” point to a value laden algorithmic system (James Yeku, 2022).
• Michele Jackson’s scholarship on digital blackface
• “The coded gaze” - Joy Buolamwini

Indigenous Knowledges/Indigenous Science

Recommended by Indigenous Technologies staff

Readings

• Native Science: Natural Laws of Interdependence by Gregory Cajete (2000)

• Zapotec Science: Farming and Food in the Northern Sierra of Oaxaca by Roberto Gonzalez (2001)
• Spiral to the Stars: Mvskoke Tools of Futurity by Laura Harjo (2019)
• Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants by Robin Wall Kimmerer (2013)
• Dark Emu : Black Seeds: Agriculture or Accident? By Bruce Pascoe (2014)
• Beyond Settler Time by Mark Rifkin (2017)
• Ritual: Power, Healing and Community by Malidoma Patrice Somé (1993)

• Sand Talk: How Indigenous Thinking Can Save the World by Tyson Yunkaporta (2020)

• “Indigenous Science Declaration” by Robin Wall Kimmerer, et al. (2017)
• “An Indigenous Feminist’s take on the Ontological Turn” by Zoe Todd (2014)

Watch/listen to

• “Indigenous Knowledge and Western Science,” lecture by Leroy Little Bear (14 January 2015)
• “Tending the Wild” Documentary series from KCET (2017)

Resources

• Indigenous Science, Technology, and Society: an international research and teaching hub, housed at the University of Alberta

Futurity

Recommended by Indigenous Technologies staff

Readings

• Walking the Clouds: An Anthology of Indigenous Science Fiction edited by Grace L. Dillon (2012)
• “Antíkoni,” a play included in The Beadworkers, a story collection by Beth Piatote (2019)
• “The Creation Story Is a Spaceship: Indigenous Futurism and Decolonial Deep Space” by Lindsay Catherine Cornum

• “Welcome to the Authentic Indian Experience™”by short story by Rebecca Roanhorse
• “Rupturing Settler Time: Visual Culture and Geographies of Indigenous Futurity” by Amber Hickey, from the Special Issue on Indigenous Futurisms in World Art, Vol. 9, No. 2 (2019) edited by Suzanne Newman Frickle.

More reading lists and syllabi

Decolonizing Science Reading List compiled by Chanda Prescod-Weinstein

Critical Race Digital Studies Syllabus edited and compiled by Lori Kido Lopez & Jackie Land

Red Nation Political Education: Reading Lists from The Red Nation’s Freedom Councils

Afrotectopia Imagineer Syllabus 

Dark Laboratory: Black and Indigenous Critical Theory Reading List (full syllabus TK Summer 2021)