Brainstorm 6 - Emilia Garcia-Bompadre

In 'Ceremony of Memory", Patrisia Gonzales describes Indigenous technology mainly from the view of motherhood and birthing  practices. while she also includes indigenous calendar systems and storytelling, the main focus is on Indigenous birthing rituals, which serve as technology and medicine. One of the technologies Gonzales discusses is sweat lodges for female healing, which were aligned with the cosmos, exhibiting knowledge of both medicine and astronomy. Additionally, Gonzales discusses scarfs/shawls and braids during brith as technology, both of which have important roles in the ritual. Gonzales writes that "a woman's braid holds energetic power because it receives energy from the earth" (86).The braid thus acts as a technology to connect women and the earth, and create a bond between the natural world and the human to energize the birth of the child. The shawl is an important technology because it serves to "adjust the position of the fetus...and can help the baby descend during labor by applying pressure to the mothers back and stomach" (85). The use of a shawl for childbirth emphasizes the idea of a natural brith, using what elements are available to encourage the birth of a child. Additionally, it demonstrates medicinal technologies further from rituals connecting the woman and the earth, and more of the woman becoming one with herself and her body. 

By the end, 'Ceremony of Memory' creates a dialogue of remembering past practices and traditions and using modern technologies to spread those ideas. Gonzales writes that "midwives are using the internet and Native-controlled media to disseminate knowledge" (88), furthering this idea that rituals and technology from the past don't have to be replaced by modern medicine, and that technology can empower them to not be forgotten. This idea is corroborated in the 'Clumsy Sky' video, which shows Girl in a Coma rocking out to their own modern rock while also honoring past Tejano legends, hanging their picture up on a wall alongside traditional artists.