“Numbering the Indians,” Wikwemikong, Manitoulin Island, ON, 1856, by William Armstrong (1822-1914). Toronto Public Library.
A new “Indian register” for Indigenous DNA?
Science policy is divided into two central domains: science for policy, which pertains to the policy infrastructure and uses of scientific knowledge in government decision-making (for example, “evidence-based decision making,” or science advice), and policy for science, which deals with the roles of research and the creation of knowledge in a given society (such as funding research and universities). What’s missing is an analysis of how governments use science and technology to directly govern their citizens.
A highly notable example of governance through techno-science is the use of DNA profiling in government-sponsored forensic science, just one of the ways people are being exposed to new modes of biotechnological identification schemes. For Indigenous peoples, these advances are happening while the fields of science and law continue to be defined by colonial imbalances. Understanding the contexts surrounding the interactions that Indigenous peoples have with state-directed science and technology requires knowledge of the histories of race, gender, and colonialism through which modern sciences and governments have emerged.
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