Unavoidable expertise, ‘technocratic positionality,’ and GIScience: eliciting an indigenous geospatial ontology with the Eastern Cree in Northern Quebec

Abstract

Advancements in geospatial technologies promise liberation from experts’ knowledge. We argue that, despite these technological developments, Geographic Information Science (GIScience) expertise continues to shape research concerning Indigenous communities, specifically on abstruse GIScience topics such as ontology. We found limits in approaches to the development of Indigenous ontology because the role of the technocratic expert goes unquestioned, which can effect a recolonization of Indigenous peoples and their spatial knowledge. We argue that a technocracy is unavoidable; GIScience researchers must, therefore, address their positionality in research involving Indigenous peoples. Positionality compels the researcher to reflexively acknowledge how legitimacy is conferred through, for example, their credentialed expertise, institutions, race, class, and gender. To address technocratic positionality in Indigenous geospatial ontologies, we draw on our experience with the Eastern Cree in Northern Quebec in eliciting geospatial concepts. We offer hermeneutics and heuristics as promising approaches to avoiding recolonization and increasing Indigenous contributions to ontology production. A heuristic approach requires the researcher to be immersed within the community. Hermeneutics emphasizes the interpretation of knowledge alongside Indigenous community members. The immersion and greater inclusivity afforded by these two approaches allow the researcher to conduct research activities without being confined to the role of a technocrat outsider/expert. We discuss challenges that persist in reducing distance and in balancing a technocratic positionality.

Keywords:

• Positionality
• feminist methodologies
• indigenous peoples
• indigenous methodologies
• GIS

Acknowledgements

We acknowledge a doctoral research scholarship from the Fonds de recherche du Québec – Société et culture (FRQSC) received by the first author to conduct this research. We are grateful to the Cree Nation of Wemindji and all community members. We also thank Kevin Grove and the anonymous reviewers for their careful reading of our manuscript and their many insightful comments and suggestions.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Geneviève Reid

Dr. Genevieve Reid is interested in the design of geospatial technologies for their use in Indigenous contexts. Her research critically examines challenges and opportunities of mapping technologies in taking into consideration Indigenous ways of knowing, Indigenous conceptualizations of space and time, and Indigenous geospatial data sovereignty. She is involved in research and mapping projects with the Eastern Cree in Northern Quebec, Canada.

Renée E. Sieber

Dr. R. E. Sieber researches the use and value of information and communications technologies by marginalized communities, community-based organizations, and social movement groups. Her current work concentrates on the potential use of geospatial machine learning algorithms for social justice. Sieber founded the GIS study group of the Canadian Association of Geographers and is a leader in the field of public participation GIS.