Indigenous Data Discourse: Categorization and Open Data in Colombia

Abstract

The present study investigated the discourse of the Colombian government of Indigenous communities in the context of the data platform of the Colombian government. Considering that data studies are a relatively new academic field, previous research suggested that ongoing power relations are obscured in data collection systems and data sets. However, no earlier research on Colombia’s Indigenous people has been conducted. This study used critical discourse analysis to assess two categories of the open data platform in order to better understand the types of datasets that come into each. The analysis suggests that the placement of datasets under specific categories, reveals socio-political discourses of ongoing coloniality that promote inequality and embellish power relations. The findings indicate that the open data platform is now working against the government's goal of increasing trust and transparency among Colombian citizens. Future ethnographic study will create new conversations to better understand this, keeping in mind that each Indigenous group evolves differently.