Thinking Spatially Symposium: Indigenous Data Sovereignty

Friday, October 27, 2023 | 10:00 am - 12:30 pm CDT

Hybrid: Online & Northrop, Crosby Seminar Room (Room 240, 2nd Floor)

FREE and Open to the Public (Registration Requested)

Concepts of Indigenous data sovereignty challenge the western academic perspectives on information, data, and ownership. Join us at the 6th annual Thinking Spatially symposium for a series of presentations featuring Indigenous researchers exploring issues of data ownership and access, including spatial data, and discussing how these issues need to be approached in research and public communication. Who should have access to what knowledge, and in what circumstances? How do researchers navigate these issues while working within a large research institution? Panelists will share how they navigate issues of data sovereignty in their own work and with community partners.

Featuring: Gabby Menomin, Deacon DeBoer, and An Garagiola, moderated by Sean Dorr.

9:30 Refreshments
10:00 Introductions & Individual Presentations
11:05 Break
11:20 Panel Discussion
12:30 End

Thinking Spatially is an annual mapping event designed to bring campus and community members together around a common theme. Speakers and data sources offer attendees an interdisciplinary approach to further explore the spatial context of historic and current events, as well as the opportunity to identify and recognize the value of data visualization and the role of maps in presenting data.

Thinking Spatially is presented by the Institute for Advanced Study, the John R. Borchert Map Library, Mapping Prejudice, University of Minnesota Libraries, and U-Spatial.

Accessibility

The Institute for Advanced Study is committed to making its events accessible to everyone. Accessible seating is available in the Crosby Seminar Room at Northrop, which is located on the 2nd Floor of Northrop. This event will also be professionally captioned. Some accommodation requests take us time to arrange, so please make requests for this event by Wednesday, October 11, 2023. If you are registering after this date, please reach out to us so we can explore available options. Questions/requests, contact Abby Travis, [email protected].

Presenters

An Garagiola
Taking Back and Taking Up Space: Indigenizing the University Through Relational Policy Work

As a core member of the TRUTH (Towards Recognition and University-Tribal Healing) Project, An’s research maps university land transactions from the land grabs of the 1800s to the present day. Upon this cartography, An traces the legacy of anti-Indigenous policies at UMN. And in contrast, she discusses the Office of Native American Affairs push for new polices at UMN that center Indigenous rights and data sovereignty in research and teaching polices. This sharp delineation tells the story of genocide, land expropriation, and the pursuit of justice told through an Anishinaabeg perspective.

An Garagiola, descendent of the Bois Forte Band of Chippewa, is a mother, a Ph.D. student in American Studies, and the Project Manager in the Office of Native American Affairs at the University of Minnesota. Here, on the Dakota homelands of Bde Ota, she studies and implements ethical systems change through an Anishinaabeg practice model. An is also a core researcher and coordinator for the TRUTH Project. Through the examination of treaties, legislation, maps, archived communications, and ledgers, her research tells the story of how the founding regents drove a pattern of wealth transfer from Indigenous Peoples to the institution, and offers actionable steps towards justice. An's dissertation focuses on healing in the aftermath of irreparable harm through an analysis of reconciliation action plans.

Deacon DeBoer
The Očheti Sakówiŋ Remapping Project

Our stories carry great knowledge. They carry knowledge abut our lives, the lives of ancestors, and about our being on this earth. As a practice of caretaking that knowledge, and the earth from which it comes, we seek to create a digital collection of storytelling—to be accessed through both a web server and mobile application—about important Očheti Sakówiŋ places throughout Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, and further. These stories comprise a map of our Očheti Sakówiŋ Makočhe, the lands of the Seven Council Fires. In this presentation I will highlight our guiding principles within working with tribal partners to construct the map.

Čhaŋté waštéya napé čhiyúzapi, Deacon miyé do. Wašiču iá Deacon emákiyapi do. Dakhóta čhažé bduhé šni. Damákhota ga wamášiču. Oyáte mitháwa kiŋ Sisíthuŋwaŋ ga Norwegian ga French ga Dutch ewičhakiyapi. Rouillard thiyóšpaye. Marshall othúŋwe ga Granite Falls othúŋwe héčhiya taŋháŋ wahí. Phežúta zizi k’api ga Marshall othúŋwe ed imáčhaǧe. Wanŋa Bde óta othúŋwe ed wathí tkha nakúŋ toháŋtuča Phežúta zizi k’api ed wathi do. Mni Sota wóuŋspe waŋkántuya ed wabdáwa do. Heritage studies and public history uŋspémič’ičhiye. Wóuŋspe waŋ Historical Preservation ga cultural resource management eyápi kiŋ ówapha. Hello my relatives, I greet you with a kind heart and a handshake. In english, my name is Deacon DeBoer. I am Dakhóta and wašiču. I grew up on the land where they dig for the Yellow Medicine along the Mni sota wakpa (Minnesota River) and Četaŋ wakpadaŋ (Hawk Creek), near present day Granite Falls. Now, I live in Minneapolis and am a current graduate student at the University of Minnesota in the Heritage studies and Public History program studying historical preservation and cultural resource management. My areas of focus include applying traditional ecological management and constructing frameworks of indigeneity and reciprocity that can be modeled in relation to the historical memory of the landscape. As well as decolonizing narratives through truth-telling and Dakhóta Iápi kiŋ.

Gabby Menomin
Data and Research at Wakan Tipi

Gabby will discuss Wakan Tipi Awanyankapi’s history and relationships with researchers and other forms of data collection that happen at Wakan Tipi (Bruce Vento Nature Sanctuary). Also, how western science and Indigenous values do not always align and how we as an organization are moving to better establish what our data collection and research looks like for this sacred site, and building a reciprocal partnership with MSP-LTER.

Gabby Menomin is an enrolled member of the Forest County Potawatomi Community (bullhead clan) of northern Wisconsin. With a B.S. in Urban & Community Forestry, a B.A. in American Indian Studies, and M.S. in Tribal Natural Resource Management, Gabby is focused on plant relatives and how climate change is impacting them. She is passionate about the environment and looking at how to center indigenous voices, values, and knowledge in the stewardship of the land.

Moderator: Sean Dorr

Sean Dorr is a member of the Marten Clan and an enrolled citizen of the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe. On his mother’s side, he is connected to both the White Earth Nation and Red Lake Nation, with family roots in both Naytahwaush and Warroad, Minnesota. In the western context, he is a fourth-year Ph.D. student in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities, where he works out of the Interactive Visualization Lab (IV/LAB) under the direction of Dr. Daniel Keefe. Being deeply rooted in his Ojibwe lifeways and worldview are foundational to all aspects of his life, and this is notably reflected in his research. His mission is to enact tribal sovereignty, self-determination, and connection to Indigenous lifeways through the process of designing intergenerationally accessible computing solutions with and by Indigenous communities. From an Anishinaabe perspective and firmly grounded in Critical Indigenous Theory, Sean’s research agenda addresses the challenges of bringing together western environmental sciences and Indigenous approaches to relative caretaking to co-develop solutions in response to climate change. He was awarded the Interdisciplinary Doctoral Fellowship for the 2023-2024 academic year to advance his research agenda and forge deep relationships with other passionately applied thinkers at the Institute on the Environment.

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