Relational Science

What if glaciology — a field built on “untouched” landscapes and extractive exploration — could be remade through relationality? This episode of Relational Science takes listeners into a conversation rarely heard in the geosciences: what Indigenous values can teach a discipline shaped by colonial logics, and what it means to practice science ethically in places where communities have been displace...

What if Data Sovereignty is not a technical problem, but an over 200‑year story of return? A story of land, language, and the long arc of Indigenous occupation. That question anchors this conversation, which was recorded live at the US Indigenous Data Sovereignty & Governance Summit. WarīNkwī K. Flores is joined by Joseph Yracheta and Tribal Council member Raphael Wahwassuck of the Prairie Ban...

What if IDSov coming home is a return of direction? A method? A governance framework? Over the three days on O’odham lands, that idea kept surfacing: Indigenous Data Sovereignty is not only about protecting data but also about returning responsibility to the peoples and places from which that data comes. Recorded live on the final day of the US Indigenous Data Sovereignty & Governance Summit,...

What if Indigenous Data Sovereignty is not about the data at all — but about the story? The voice? The face? The obligations that bind us to one another across generations? That question sits at the center of this conversation, recorded live from the US Indigenous Data Sovereignty & Governance Summit. WarīNkwī and Sierra are joined by Angelo Baca (Diné/Hopi) to explore the frontier where Indig...

What if data is not a resource to be managed, but a relative to be returned home? Across the Indigenous Data Sovereignty Summit, that question kept resurfacing. In plenaries, in hallways, in unconference circles, in the quiet moments when people admitted they were exhausted because this work is spiritual, emotional, intellectual, and ancestral all at once. Recorded live on O’odham lands, this epis...

What if meaning is not something we discover — but something we make? And what if data, intelligence, and governance are not technical domains at all, but philosophical ones? Recorded live from the USA Indigenous Data Sovereignty & Governance Summit, this conversation turns toward the foundations beneath the foundations. WarīNkwī K. Flores is joined by Joseph Yracheta and Kelly Dine (Diné), a...

The sessions have ended for day 1. The room is still humming. And the conversation is only getting sharper. What happens when Indigenous Data Sovereignty becomes not just a legal framework — but a meeting place for global Indigenous experience? Recorded live from the media center of the USA Indigenous Data Sovereignty Summit, this episode traces the sharp, evolving conversations emerging across na...

The summit has opened its doors — and from the very first session, something is shifting. What began years ago as a passionate, aspirational movement is now becoming operational . WarīNkwī K. Flores, co-host, is joined by Cristina Ore (Andean descent, Quechua genealogy from Huancavelica, Peru, and Irish descent), born and raised on Tohono O'odham ancestral land and Yaqui tribal land. Co-founde...

What if sovereignty and sustainability are not two different words — but one? In the Hawaiian language, Ea holds both. That single insight anchors this conversation, recorded live from the media center of the USA Indigenous Data Sovereignty Summit. WarīNkwī K. Flores is joined by Keolu Fox (Hawaiʻi), Yousuf Rajput , and Eric Dawson — co-founders of Earthframe , a sovereign AI and low-scale compute...

We are on the ground at the USIDSN Indigenous Data Sovereignty & Governance Summit 2026— and before the main doors open, we gathered in the circle. Day 0 was an Indigenous-only ethical space and a spatial justice: tribal leaders, students, data stewards, and practitioners were asking the foundational question: what is data, really, to us, for us, from us? WarīNkwī K. Flores and Sierra Hicks ar...

Our co-hosts, Sierra Hicks and WariNkwi Flores, continue their examination of Part II of the insights and foresights on the IEEE 2890-2025 Recommended Practice for Provenance of Indigenous Peoples' Data, focusing on sections 7.3 through 14 . Their analysis explored key aspects of data creation, transfer, storage, and publication, powerfully emphasizing the essential importance of safeguarding Indi...

How do you validate the origin of knowledge in the age of AI and Big Data? The answer may lie in the IEEE 2890-2025 Recommended Practices for Provenance of Indigenous Peoples Data . Join our co-hosts, WariNkwi and Sierra , for a critical analysis of the first international standard that applies the CARE Principles through technical provenance. As the US Indigenous Data Sovereignty Network notes, t...

We yarn on the territorial and international perspectives of the so-called "COP30, the Indigenous COP" with the Post Growth Institute fellows from the UK and Brazil to discuss Indigenous participation in climate negotiations, particularly focusing on the "COP of Indigenous Peoples". The discussion explored challenges around knowledge production, representation, and trust in cli...

We've embraced a temporal new path in our Data Kinship Series after a season filled with rich ceremonies, engaging conferences, and meaningful fieldwork. In this episode, we embark on an autoethnography of those transformative experiences. Nkwi and Sierra explore the ethics of capturing moments through photos at ceremonies, how our positionality represents embodied metadata, and the vital role of...

The Data Kinship series continues! In this episode, Nkwi and Sierra apply Indigenous autoethnography by beginning with a reflexive discussion about their positionality, intentionality, and the tension of integrity (potentiality) . They then delve into what it means to learn from Indigenous Peoples' systems thinking (pattern thinking) and glean some insights into Indigenous systems thinking wit...

In their second episode of Relational Science, WN and Sierra launch a three-episode Data Kinship series, beginning with the topic of appropriation at a listener's request. The newly minted podcast hosts discuss the relationships and responsibilities inherent to data, how data can be appropriated, and the consequences for Indigenous Peoples . They also examine the cultural differences that contribu...

"Relational Science" is a thought-provoking podcast that delves into the intricate web of relationality in the realms of knowledge, data, information, and technology. Join PhD students WariN. Flores and Sierra Hicks as they engage in insightful dialogues with researchers, exploring the dynamics, multiplicity, and dimensionality of knowledge production and tackling pressing questions about our futu...