Postcolonial Technoscience: GIS for Indigenous History

Since 1972, with the formation of the World Heritage Convention (WHC), the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has actively exchanged geographical information with Indigenous Peoples in order to create and protect World Heritage Sites (WHS). In 2012 UNESCO identified 21 WHS as having Indigenous connections, however, since the WHC has not undertaken a comprehensive review, the exact number of sites that are within the traditional territories of indigenous peoples, or that otherwise affect them, is uncertain. Recently Indigenous peoples, governments and other actors are demanding “that UN agencies take clear policy positions in relation to indigenous peoples’ rights and issues as they relate to their respective mandates,” including the WHC.(UNESCO website) “Postcolonial Technoscience: Geographic Information Exchange, World Heritage Site Development, and the Rights of Indigenous Peoples” is the first study of the implementation of UN Indigenous rights in the mapping and GIS processes of a supranational organization, UNESCO. Using untapped WHS documents, the study will map out relationships between people, technologies, geographic information, and boundaries that will reveal how maps and GIS are produced, how they produce work and who is included within the processes of determining a WHS.