Brainstorm 6, Grace Burchett

The technologies she describes are the indigenous healing rituals and ceremonies. Specifically, the author specifies the elaborate process of giving birth. One technological aspect of this process, the use of a cord around the waist, is relevant today as a way of adjusting the baby’s position. However, the key of all these technologies was the knowledge about the process itself and how to go about the rituals. Therefore, the true keepers of the technology were the women performed these medicinal ceremonies and kept alive this sacred knowledge. 

A common thread between these two texts is the understanding that Chicana and indigenous knowledge is vital, and should be understood as a technology that needs to be preserved. In the first article, books and writing were used to document indigenous rituals, but this documentation was turned into a weapon when colonial powers used writing as evidence in trials against indigenous figures. In the second article, documentation in the form of social networks, such as twitter, is used to infuse Chicana knowledge and musical style with the futuristic trends of social technology.