Guiliano and Heitman’s piece that describes the complexities of indigenous data was very enlightening in terms of the way we treat the nature of knowledge and truth (epistemology). The authors basically appeals to the fact that the knowledge or data available to us are not value-neutral. Data are always subject to a particular system of knowledge production. In societies where the remnants of colonialism and imperialism still linger, the knowledge is colonial-centric. Therefore, it is important to recognize the cultures and histories of the indigenous (or other marginalized members) and make efforts to preserve and reclaim their cultures. The events experienced by the colonized and the colonizers can be very different. In other words, we should try to “see with their own eyes” such traumatizing history.

As evident from the example of comfort women and how the scholarly communities in Asia struggled to overcome lack of evidence to support their claim, which I raised in the last class, there is a need to recognize the possibility of missing, overlooked, destroyed, or hidden data we may never even have access to. I believe that the seemingly “nonexistent” knowledge still “exists” somewhere, because the set of knowledge that is available today could possibly be built upon the colonizer’s epistemologies. In this context, a broad societal awareness or strong initiative to help the traumatized define THEIR versions of the reality is vital.

The digital humanities can help visualize the reality of such data limitation. Just like how literary studies can benefit from using digital tools to visualize the presence of different revisions and editions of old texts, scholars who deal with indigenous data can greatly benefit from utilizing digital tools. For example, it helps talk about the realities of the oppressed in easy and accessible language and medium, which was not possible before. The complexities of data related to colonization history can be greatly overcome by visualizing the reality of the tradition of knowledge production and representation.

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