Caring for Our People: Indigenous Responses to Covid-19 Era Informatic Colonialism

Abstract

Based on qualitative and quantitative analyses, activist work and HCI approaches, these papers show how organizations formed partnerships to curate information resources, and deploy community Wi-Fi and Internet infrastructure across southwest US Indigenous communities during the most challenging months of the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic. For Native Americans this means ideating while navigating colonial inequality. Through an investigation of sociotechnical interdependencies across a broadband network cooperative, tribes, and university labs, an HCI team reflects on how relational stability sustains fragile Internet ecologies stretched to capacity by the needs of users deeply affected by COVID-19 in New Mexico and Arizona. Through an autoethnography of community-centered digital solutions for Navajo Nation, a member of the Nation considers how the role of K’é informs a system of infrastructural care in a nation struggling with high rates of infection and systemic lack of adequate infrastructure. Through an advocacy-oriented analysis of social media content, a Diné and Lakota social media scholar discerns the relationship between community enforcement of social distancing, the loss of interpersonal interaction, mutual aid, and the impact of public health memes for the Navajo Nation. Through radical librarianship practices, a Tohono O’odham librarian and artist counteracts the values of ‘information neutrality’ shaping whiteness-centering American librarianship by generating a community-curated solution to actionable information about COVID-19 for Indigenous communities. This panel models decolonial liberation rooted in responsiveness across mediated layers of Indigenous belonging. The authors express Indigenous interpretations of collective autonomy vis-a-vis strategic Internet assemblages, and particularly, how an Indigenous ethics of care intersects with the dream of an Internet for social good.

Indigenous Māori responses to COVID‐19: He waka eke noa?

“…8). Among the Diné (Navajo) nation the concept K'é relates to recognising the ways that people are related and the importance of nurturing that connection through caring (Duarte et al, 2021 ).…”

“…Salient concerns for Indigenous peoples are the need to ensure that cultural knowledge is maintained, or in some cases, regenerated. On the ground responses throughout the early stages of the COVID‐19 pandemic typically involved establishing roadblocks, food delivery, providing access to technologies, delivery of water, checking in on elders, health care, advocacy, delivering hygiene products and contraceptives, and offering transportation to medical appointments (Cram, 2020 ; Duarte et al, 2021 ; Dudgeon et al, 2020 ).…”

The Impact of COVID-19 on Māori Patients Attending Diabetes Annual Review

“…Representing 17.1% of the total New Zealand population [ 4 ], Māori feature heavily in all negative indices. In terms of disparities, Māori are underprivileged in socioeconomics and health due to the residual effects of colonization, which is borne out in the literature [ 5 - 7 ].…”

How the media framed the COVID‐19 crisis on Native Nations: A case comparison of The New York Times and the Navajo Times

“…The unique angles of American Indian sources may show differences in perception, portrayal, and responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. We anticipated, for instance, a greater focus on American Indian resiliency (Azocar et al 2021;Duarte et al 2021;Goodkind 2012) or survivance (Brayboy 2005;Vizenor 2008), as well as tribal sovereignty. For example, anecdotally the NT featured a strong focus on local Navajo Nation news and how Diné communities adapted to the challenges posed by COVID-19.…”

“…2021; Duarte et al. 2021; Goodkind 2012) or survivance (Brayboy 2005; Vizenor 2008), as well as tribal sovereignty. For example, anecdotally the NT featured a strong focus on local Navajo Nation news and how Diné communities adapted to the challenges posed by COVID‐19.…”