Indigenous story-telling through the data: Surfacing the hidden histories of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people through the respectful use of data
Dr Scott Avery
When you look at the night sky, you see the story of the universe on a grand scale. Individual stars, each with their own histories, group to form constellations. Constellations form galaxies, and galaxies combine to make up the universe. Some stars shine brightly, while others hide in dark matter out of view, even though we know that they are there.
When it comes to the histories of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, it is data that tells our stories on a grand scale. Each statistic or number in a data report can be traced back to a person – an individual star – who happened to be asked or chose to share their story with others. Even if the only way they were able to share their story was by filling in a form, or relying on someone else to fill it in, data captures a slice of their existence Then another person chooses to tell their story. Then another. This goes on until there are enough people telling their story and it becomes a picture of a community – the constellations group together to form a galaxy of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander stories through time.
Just as there is dark matter that exists in the universe which hides the stories of stars and constellations, in the same is true for data. The production of dark matter that sits over the data and stories is the impact of colonialism on Australian modern history. Colonialism sees the stories of some people more important than the stories of others. The telescope focused first on the stars that spoke the loudest and demanded the most attention, and those were the stories that came to be reflected in the data. Dark matter expanded and grew denser, stopping scholars and scientists from looking for other stars. But dark matter did not stop those stars from existing, even if they couldn’t be seen with the naked eye.
For many centuries, colonialism had presumed ownership over the stories that came from the data. This was to the point of co-opting the stories of galaxies that they did not understand, projecting a narrative that suited their view of the universe. Stars hidden behind the dark matter wondered if it was worth shining at all.
But this appropriated and limited view is not what the fullness of the universe intended. The term ‘data’ has modest origins, derived from a Latin phrase that means ‘something given or granted’ (but not taken). Indigenous scholars are leading a renaissance in reading the data universe using a knowledge system that predates colonialism by time immortal, using a vocabulary to share Indigenous knowledges for contemporary times. There is the term ‘disaggregation’ that describes constellations within galaxies that show a distinct pattern when the stars were joined. Then, for the constellations that could not be, there is ‘intersectionality’. Intersectionality teaches us not only that dark matter exists, but why it exists and how do we see through it.
The renaissance of Indigenous knowledge in data is packaged within the discipline of Indigenous Data Sovereignty. This is an ethical framework for the collection of data and telling of the narrative that emerges from it. For analysts and users of Indigenous data, respecting Indigenous Data Sovereignty requires users to be faithful to the data that comes from those who have granted you their story, and to acknowledge the existence of those have who have, for whatever reason, chosen not to. Indigenous Data Sovereignty is not simply a set of findings, but gives you the method for getting there through a voyage of respectful co-discovery that will keep pushing the data universe to its outer limits.