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Rodney
Bobiwash
The
late technology guru and modern philosopher Marshall McLuhan said
that in the Information Age, we would all wear the skin of one
another’s culture. This statement addresses the ambivalence
about the use of information technology, like the Internet, by
contemporary indigenous peoples. Successful cultures are those
that are able to tolerate a high degree of adaptation and
flexibility. The Haida artist Bill Reid once said that the only
way for culture to survive, to be vibrant, was to keep inventing
new things. Cultures that are unable to invent are quickly
consigned to history.
The survival of the approximately 6,000 to 10,000
indigenous nations worldwide is a testimony to the merits of
cultural adaptation. On the other hand, there is a great concern
within these nations that the same forces that brought them useful
technologies have also brought Coca-Cola, Nike, and other global
corporations intent on undermining local culture, language, and
tradition. Indigenous elders realize too well that the one who
controls the narrative—who tells the stories—controls both the
future and the past. How does the Internet fit into this?
Indigenous people have been quick to embrace the use of the
Internet, seeing in it the potential for access to a larger
community of interest for their local struggles, for fostering
cultural revitalization, and for transforming their relationship
with the dominant society. It is often pointed out that, in 1994,
the Zapatistas in Chiapas, Mexico, fought the first, local,
indigenous insurgency over the Internet. Using e-mail and the Web,
the Zapatistas were able to gain access to both media and
international support groups with an immediacy and effectiveness
unknown before.
Among other examples, in the mid-1980s, the Center for
World Indigenous Studies began construction of a site devoted to
indigenous cultural information. What began as a bulletin board
has now grown to over 30,000 documents in the George Manuel
On-Line Library, a leading source of information about
contemporary indigenous issues.
In the Canadian Arctic, the new province of Nunavut has
been developing
computer code (unicode) to enable its geographically far-flung
government offices to communicate with each other using a common
Inuktituut orthography. Apple Computer’s Library of Tomorrow
project has worked with indigenous people globally to reinforce
local languages and enhance networking between indigenous
communities.
While such initiatives have been positive, many tribal
elders fear that, in the long run, the Internet will be used to
reinforce traditional, hierarchical social structures and the
hegemony of the state and corporations, and to provide
uncontrolled access to traditional knowledge. Concepts such as
cultural property and intellectual property rights are still in
flux, and, in the absence of clearly defined legal instruments
relating to ownership of cultural property, the indigenous
knowledge found on the Web is at the mercy of end-users. The lack
of progress in defining appropriate limitations means that
indigenous peoples will continue to view with a great deal of
suspicion databases developed in response to the Convention on
Biodiversity, the World Taxonomy Project, etc.
With the Internet, as with all introduced technology, the
principle of successful adaptation remains paramount: Accept only
those things that demonstrate a clear benefit. While the Internet
has proven beneficial to indigenous communities, until collateral
issues on the information highway have been resolved, it, too,
must be governed by the precautionary principle. The invention of
new technology promises new spheres of engagement between
indigenous people and nonindigenous societies. But, if I am to
invite you to wear my skin, you must first learn to respect the
spirit within.
Rodney
Bobiwash was a member of the Anishnabek Nation, on the north shore
of Lake Huron, Canada. Before his untimely death in December 2001,
he was director of the Forum for Global Exchange at the Center for
World Indigenous Studies, an international organization promoting
indigenous knowledge.
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