Tammy Dee Platero joins this episode to share her background in computer science and her current work as the executive director of MMIR Utah (Missing and Murdered Indigenous Relatives Utah, non-profit organisation). Platero introduces some of her tech interest, explains terms, shares stories growing up in Utah, and the call to do Indigenous community work full-time. MMIR Utah is working on a community database that responds to gaps from under-reporting based in a lack of trust, which stems out of a history of colonial violence that extends into the present. We discuss several topics including Indigenous data sovereignty, historical contexts, the founding of the MMIR Utah non-profit org, and the complexity of intersecting social and ecological issues. Platero demonstrates an interconnected consciousness along with a message of rematriation that is embedded in campaigns to repair relationships, reclaim narratives, assert sovereignty, and proactively create.

References:

MMIR Utah

The First Nations Principles of OCAP

Animikii

U.S. Indigenous Data Sovereignty Network

Lamanite Program

Utah legislative MMIR task force report

Colorado Office of the Liaison for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Relatives

Playing Indian by Philip J. Deloria

The Apocalypse of Settler Colonialism by Gerald Horne

Urban Indian Health Institute Report

Mychaela Parrish Medicine Forward Project

UN declaration on the rights of Indigenous peoples