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Hoʻokele Naʻauao 2020: Abigail Echo-Hawk

Decolonizing Data

Western based models often begin with the premise that a community has a problem. But an Indigenous model says we have the answers, they are carried in our stories, our land and our DNA. At the Urban Indian Health Institute (UIHI), the only research, epidemiology and evaluation institute in the US focused on the urban dwelling Indigenous population, we recognize data gathering as ancestral practice. How we implement that is based on our responsibility as an Indigenous organization that is working to reclaim and rebuild these ancestral practices. Our elders have told us that only when our cultural knowledge is incorporated and valued will we see healthy future generations. This framework defies and resists the impacts of historical trauma, instead it moves us into historical healing which gathers the pieces broken by historical trauma and stitches them back together in bold, beautiful, intricate patterns of strength and resiliency woven on the fabric of our culture. Resiliency isn’t just about survival, resiliency is about love, it’s about building and supporting, in our resiliency we see the character of our community and through decolonizing data we can tell this strength-based story. This presentation will tell the story of our organization’s journey to building and implementing a decolonizing data framework built on Indigenous values as we measure the impact of our local, regional and national projects. Together we will build a world where love, compassion, gratitude and reciprocity are more than ideals, instead they are every action.

Nov 10, 2020 10:00 AM in Hawaii