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LISTENING: to the music that brings me joy
FEELING: disturbed by the world!
SEEING: a cute new kalanchoe flower a friend gave me

I've had one hell of a week, y'all.

I spent most of Monday migrating my email and cloud storage onto more secure providers. Goodbye, Dropbox and Gmail! I'm still moving off Google Docs, but I will figure that out later because I have too much important work to focus on, instead. Actually, my reporting underscored the urgency of prioritizing my data privacy and security.

I've been reporting a story for The Verge related to Indigenous data sovereignty. Per the University of Arizona, the term can be defined as:

the right of a nation to govern the collection, ownership, and application of its own data. It derives from tribes' inherent right to govern their peoples, lands, and resources.

Indigenous data sovereignty recognizes that the U.S. government — a settler-colonial state, let me remind you — has historically not operated in good faith with Indigenous communities. It recognizes the sovereign status of Indigenous communities. The U.S. should be treating tribal nations the way it would treat any other state government, be it Mexico or Canada. Indigenous data sovereignty emphasizes that Indigenous peoples should be in control and power when it comes to their data and knowledge.

These days, data lives digitally — on servers or hard drives. Even information stored on the cloud must have a physical space somewhere. A group of Indigenous academics, mostly made up of women and gender minorities from around the globe, are working fervently to move Indigenous knowledge from out of the U.S.

Why? Well, take a look around. We're in some weird ass times, y'all. "Weird" is an understatement. These are dark times, scary times, ominous-will-we-be-safe-for-long? times. Rumeysa Ozturk, an international student at Tufts University who wrote an op-ed on Palestine, was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement Wednesday. Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian graduate of Columbia University, remains in detention.

As a journalist, especially a journalist who is the child of immigrants and writes fiercely in defense of human rights, I recognize I'm an easy target. That's especially true given the fact that I'm independent and have no organization to support me should shit hit the fan. I'm on my own! Well, except for y'all. Your support and allyship mean the world. For real.

I try to practice reciprocity by passing down that baton of solidarity and covering issues that matter to the oppressed in the U.S. and beyond. I know what oppression feels like. You probably do, too.

When I wrote for Atmos about how Indigenous scientists were feeling the federal funding cuts related to climate and "DEI," sources kept mentioning the need for Indigenous data sovereignty. I had never heard of the term before, but I could tell the issue mattered to the people I was speaking to.

So that's been my focus for the last few weeks. As the climate crisis unravels the fabric of our society, Indigenous peoples are among the most vulnerable. However, they're also some of the most equipped. Many communities have lived through climate change before. When settlers came in and violently pushed tribes off their lands and forced them somewhere new, communities had to adapt. They had to learn the ways of the foreign lands they were thrust into. They had to build relationships from scratch with the non-human relatives they were sharing the space. They had to understand the new seasonal patterns before them.

And that knowledge is theirs. No one else's. Researchers have been working closely with many Indigenous communities to capture these oral histories and expert statements. That's valuable background that needs to be protected.

As I learned of these efforts and recognized the gravity of what's happening in the U.S., I looked at my own digital hygiene. My shit was messy, man. We all have something to learn from the people paving the way. I don't want my data stored in the U.S. I don't want the same Big Tech goons that are conspiring with the president to have backdoor access to my sources' information or early drafts of stories.

Are you keeping yourself safe? How are you protecting your private information? One source shared with me this idea that I now want to share with you: Data is sacred. That might sound strange, but so much of our lives lives in data. The photos of our children, the phone numbers of our friends, the text messages to our moms, the personal notes we write to ourselves in the dark.

As I wrote last week, you are a sacred place. And so is your data. Let's start treating them as such. 🌀

Rest in Power

While we can't say for certain that climate change led to these specific weather events (we need attribution studies for that), we do know that the Earth's rising temperatures are already creating more frequent and/or stronger disasters like these.

Historic wildfires are blazing through South Korea, leaving at least 27 people dead.

On March 14, border patrol agents responded to distress calls as migrants attempted to cross from Mexico into the U.S. during a freezing cold storm. At least three people died.

Currently Reading

If you were struck by what I shared about data above, you'll love this New Yorker feature by Matthew Hutson. Imagine if data were stored in DNA.

Ed Pilkington writes about the Black Panther Cubs for The Guardian: "You are told you were born for revolution. So what do you do with your life when the revolution doesn’t come?"

I'm so distraught by all the disappearances of immigrants and advocates. One of the latest, Sydney Brownstone reports for The Seattle Times, is the detention of farmworker activist Alfredo “Lelo” Juarez.

I was on my way to dance the night away with friends when I was captivated by The New York Times story on Trump's past failed real-estate dealings with Columbia University.

Philip Holsinger writes for TIME: "One young man sobbed when a guard pushed him to the floor. He said, 'I’m not a gang member. I’m gay. I’m a barber.' I believed him."

Grist has a special series out on all the controversial mining the world will need to transition to clean energy. I haven't read the stories yet, but I'm sharing as I dive in!

Let's breathe and remember: It's not all gloom and doom. Samantha Maldonado writes for THE CITY about New York's geothermal energy potential.

Collage

I'm sharing an old collage for free subscribers who don't usually get to see them. I've gotta say: My newer collages are much cooler! Hope this inspires you to upgrade to a paid subscription. What kind of art do you create to ground yourself?

- Yessenia xx