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maya sheth

indigenous peoples, knowledge, and rights

value Connection›Each other
subject How we live together›Power, money & people›People
tags ethicspoliticsenvironment
created 2026/04/02 modified 2026/09/19
  • Native Land: a searchable map showing what native lands cover the world — my home is on the land of the Kaskaskia, Osage, Myaamia, Shawnee, Adena, Hopewell
  • Investment in Indigenous peoples' knowledge can drive their economic growth: three shifts in investment practices could yield more sustainable, organic outcomes while honoring and empowering Indigenous communities — Tatiana Botelho, Mongabay
    • Physicist and economist Cesar Hidalgo: knowledge and knowhow are the production factors driving economic growth (not capital, technology, labor, land)
      • Knowledge = human link to information, the ability to comprehend reality and make sense of it
      • Knowhow = physical ability to make use of that knowledge, gained through experimentation, interaction, experience
      • For information to grow, it must be physically embodied
      • Consider balance of knowledge in trade relations rather than monetary value — e.g. Chile (exports fruit, copper) has a lower GDP than South Korea (exports electronics)
    • Indigenous peoples are not supported in capitalizing on their most valuable asset: knowledge and knowhow of complex ecosystems like the Amazon — biodiversity there is a perfect lab for synthetic biology approaches
    • Initiatives must be built on existing connections and networks — past projects failed because they were "islands"; bigger networks store more distributed knowledge
      • To stimulate networks, lower the cost of transactions — e.g. standardization (vs. many competing sets of conditions in Brazil nut supply chains)
    • Projects must create structural mechanisms ensuring tacit knowhow is passed on — combine scientific knowledge with existing forest skills, provide logistical/tech support while communities learn to run businesses
  • What designers can learn from Indigenous communities fighting climate change: investigates links between design, Indigenous knowledge, and the climate crisis — Anoushka Khandwala, Eye on Design
    • Interviews with:
      • Julia Watson, author of Lo-TEK, on "different instances of design by radical Indigenism" and how ecological knowledge can inform sustainable design
      • Klee Benally of Indigenous Action, who uses design to propagandize
      • Demian DinéYazhi', founder of R.I.S.E. (Radical Indigenance Survivance and Empowerment), uses art to platform voices of Indigenous descent
    • Indigenous people have long protected biodiversity; need fundamental change from colonialist systems (capitalism, white supremacy) to address root causes of climate change
    • "The biggest part of the solution is for the global climate justice movement to get behind or beside Indigenous people."
    • External teams going into communities to help them become "more climate resilient" often disrupts existing knowledge and perpetuates colonial frameworks (esp. in Pacific Islands)
    • R.I.S.E. and Indigenous Action use engaging, accessible forms of information distribution — recognizable aesthetics, zines, exhibitions, social media — and organize direct actions that treat colonization as war
  • Forest defenders: a Panamanian tribe regains control of its lands: with a landmark court ruling, the Naso people of Panama have won the rights to ancestral territory that includes two national reserves the tribe will now help manage — mounting evidence shows that Indigenous groups are often the best protectors of their lands — Yale E360
  • Hawai'i is not our playground: learning to decolonize and travel responsibly in Hawaii; why it's important to go beyond the leis and surf lessons, and the history of military occupation of the islands — AFAR
  • QIKIQTAĠRUK: almost an island: as she listens to three generations of an Iñupiat family in Kotzebue, Alaska, discuss transformations from climate change and COVID-19, Lauren Oakes reflects on scientific knowledge and Indigenous ways of knowing as a cornerstone of building resiliency — Lauren E. Oakes with Kaisa Reese Ahluniq Kotch, Emergence Magazine
  • How museums can do more than just repatriate objects: why museums should engage in propatriation in addition to repatriation — commissioning works from the people they are returning original art to — Stephen E. Nash, SAPIENS
  • The new taboos: on the origins of "taboo," how the concept was integral to Indigenous peoples' management of natural resources, and why we need to learn how to implement it again — Nautilus
  • There's a better way to parent: less yelling, less praise: when Michaeleen Doucleff met parents from around the world, she encountered millennia-old methods of raising good kids that made American parenting seem bizarre and ineffective — Joe Pinsker and Michaeleen Doucleff, The Atlantic (based on her book Hunt, Gather, Parent)
    • Americans praise kids too much; gentler feedback (smiling, nodding) is more appropriate
    • Different narrative for why kids act out: not trying to manipulate or annoy, but just young and immature — haven't yet acquired reason or understanding
    • Child-centered spaces (museums, indoor play places) are not necessarily a great idea — kids have an innate sense of cooperation and instinct to work with family; child-centered activities can make them feel not part of the "team"
    • Outside Western culture, there is a huge amount of allo-parenting — caretakers besides mother and father; research suggests kids are designed to be raised by groups
  • The climate solution actually adding millions of tons of CO2 into the atmosphere: new research shows that California's climate policy created up to 39 million carbon credits that aren't achieving real carbon savings — but companies can buy these forest offsets to justify polluting more anyway — Lisa Song and James Temple, ProPublica
  • Lo—TEK: Design by Radical Indigenism (link needed)
  • "Securing Indigenous guardianship of vital ecosystems": Q&A with Nia Tero CEO Peter Seligmann — Rhett A. Butler, Mongabay
    • Peter Seligmann = founder of Conservation International; CI takes a top-down approach, linking community-based conservation with national and global policy reform
    • Nia Tero → founded 2017, co-led with Indigenous people; mission: "securing Indigenous guardianship of vital ecosystems"
      • Focus on specific mosaics of land across three regions: boreal forests of Canada, tropical forests of the northern Amazon, islands and oceans of the western and central Pacific
      • Support includes operating funds, technical support, security for Indigenous leaders, land monitoring, legal frameworks for rights and self-governance, energy/food sovereignty, and expanding public support
      • 2nd strategy = regional/global interventions: support self-governance, protect leaders from industry and government threats, amplify Indigenous voices through storytelling, support new policy concepts (e.g. personhood of lands and waters)
    • Indigenous peoples formally or informally govern more than 40% of the Earth
    • Technoindigenous gathering with The Tenure Facility: creating better understanding around design and deployment of technology with Indigenous peoples — e.g. reviving canoe building with solar power, land monitoring