Geotechnologies in strengthening indigenous culture: reflections on social technology

Abstract

In Brazil, indigenous peoples actively contribute to forest protection, despite facing a historical struggle against the erasure of their cultures and the preservation of their territories, enduring numerous social, economic, and political pressures. In this context, the NGO Conservation International-Brazil has developed a technological system aimed at mapping relevant information for the indigenous communities of the Yawanawá and Ashaninka peoples, with the goal of supporting the management and protection of the indigenous lands of Rio Gregório and Kampa do Rio Amônia, in the state of Acre. The system includes data collection applications, a storage platform, and georeferenced information visualization tools, enabling the monitoring of threats, production, population, culture, and biodiversity. Its creation was part of a dialogical process with three indigenous organizations, with these communities taking the lead in all stages of development, seeking to strengthen their cultural and socioeconomic values, as well as support life planning and defend the maintenance of their territories and ways of life. The developed tool represents a technology focused on mapping, with a shared cartographic perspective with the communities, offering potentialities that go beyond technological development itself. However, the technical and social appropriation of the technology is a complex process, raising reflections on remote practices in technology development with Indigenous peoples, the time required for social engagement, and the instrumentalist view associated with conventional technology.