Ep. 90: How Western Media's False Binary Between "Science" and Indigenous Rights Is Used to Erase Native People

“Science and religion fight over Hawaii's highest point,” one CNN headline puts it. “Desecrating sacred land or finding new frontiers?” BBC asks. "Science, Interrupted: Mauna Kea Observatories ‘caught in the middle,’” Pacific Business News writes. 

When tensions arise between native communities and the so-called “pursuit of science,” more often than not Western media presents this point of conflict as a symmetrical and simplistic case of “science vs. superstition.” Science is framed as a morally and politically neutral quest for truth––an objective and innovative good that will unequivocally benefit humanity. But Western “science”––despite its rank-and-file advocates' often best intentions–– has historically been used as the public relations vanguard of colonialism and white supremacy. A Trojan Horse presented as ideologically neutral, followed by an outpouring of exploitation, industry and the erasure of native peoples––both culturally and physically. 

While everyone can agree scientific research and progress are good things, the institution of “science” as such––from North America to Australia to Africa to Palestine-–has a long history of serving on the front lines of white, capitalist expansionism. This week we are going to discuss this history, how anti-colonial scientists are pushing back against these forces, and how we can expand human knowledge and understanding without weaponizing the enterprise to serve the interest of power.

We're joined on this episode by Nick Estes, Assistant Professor in the American Studies Department at the University of New Mexico.

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Guest

Nick Estes is a citizen of the Lower Brule Sioux Tribe and co-founder of The Red Nation, an Indigenous Resistance Organization. An Assistant Professor in the American Studies Department at the University of New Mexico, Estes is host of the Red Nation podcast and author of the recent book Our History Is the Future: Standing Rock Versus the Dakota Access Pipeline, and the Long Tradition of Indigenous Resistance.

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Show Notes

Protectors of Mauna Kea Are Fighting Colonialism, Not Science

Julianne Tveten | August 27, 2019 | FAIR

A Red Deal

Nick Estes | August 6, 2019 | Jacobin

Amid protest, Hawaii astronomers lose observation time

Audrey McAvoya | August 10, 2019 | Associated Press

Seeking Stars, Finding Creationism

George Johnson | October 20, 2014 | The New York Times

Science and religion fight over Hawaii's highest point

Rachel Crane and Claudia Morales | August 27, 2015 | CNN

Standing Rock Is Safe, But DAPL Still Needs to Cross a River

Marley Walker | December 6, 2016 | Wired

Start-up nation, apartheid state

Lital Khanikin | June 28, 2018 | Briarpatch

How Arabs Made Israel’s Desert Bloom More Than 1,500 Years Ago

Ariel David | May 2, 2017 | Ha'aretz

Operation Desert Bloom: The Zionist Myth that Won't Spoil, Wither, or Die

Nima Shirazi | June 30, 2011 | Wide Asleep In America

"Making the Desert Bloom" : A Myth Examined

Alan George | 1978/79 | Journal of Palestine Studies

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Transcript

For a full transcript of this episode, go here.

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