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Conduits 2025
Afternoon Keynote (1:30 - 2:30pm) presented by Dr. Jon Corbett
Afternoon Keynote (1:30 - 2:30pm) presented by Dr. Jon Corbett
Room K8652, Burnaby Campus
Indigitalization: Relational Kinship Computing and Indigenous Pathways to Decolonizing Technology
Indigitalization: Relational Kinship Computing and Indigenous Pathways to Decolonizing Technology
Abstract:
In this talk, I speak to how digital technologies increasingly mediate our lives and raise critical questions: whose values are embedded in the tools we build? Who is centered, and who is erased? I explore how western approaches to technology and computing can be decolonized and re-conceptualized through non-Western worldviews—particularly those rooted in Indigenous ways of knowing. This talk is grounded in conversations about relational epistemologies, cultural protocols, and land-based practices, and stories how Indigenous knowledge systems challenge dominant computational paradigms—not as abstract frameworks, but as place-based, ancestral, and ecological networks of responsibility.
Themes in this talk include Indigenous data sovereignty, community-led design grounded in cultural protocols, and technologies for language and cultural revitalization. I critique historical extractive infrastructures and technosolutionism, advocating for community-driven and reparative approaches to innovation. I address algorithmic bias and question assumptions of cultural neutrality in technology, emphasizing kinship and stewardship in design and development.
From DNA used in memory storage to ancestral languages embedded in programming, I walk pathways toward computing practices that relate, resist, and heal. In the end, I ask: What might technology look like when it is no longer colonial?
Dr. Jon Corbett is Cree-Métis and a member of the Métis Nation of Alberta. He is a computational artist and an Assistant Professor with Lived Indigenous Experience in the School of Interactive Art & Technology at Simon Fraser University. His has a background in art, design, and computer programming and holds degrees from the University of Alberta and University of British Columbia. Corbett's PhD. research explored Indigenous digital expression through a decolonial lens, focusing on developing computational models of Indigeneity that reflect culture, kinship, history, and land relations.
His work includes the creation of a Cree-based programming language, hardware designs for the Cree syllabic orthography, and developing software that utilizes Indigenous storytelling. Corbett's artwork has been featured at the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian in New York City, NY, and the Contemporary Native Art Biennial (BACA) in Montreal, QC.
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