The unapologetic “aunt” of Indigenous data

“Transforming Spaces” is a series about women who lead change in sometimes unexpected places.

By Susan Shain

Data has long been in background of Abigail Echo -Life of Hawk. Growing up in rural Alaska, she remembers hearing stories about Native data collectors, like an uncle who counted beavers each spring to find out how many of them could be sustainably hunted the following winter .

But it wasn't until her early 20s that Ms. Echo-Hawk realized that data wasn't just information, but They could also be power. After reading a report from the Urban Indian Health Institute on infant mortality in Washington state's Native community, Echo-Hawk shared it with a volunteer commission she was on. This led to a 2012 Seattle ordinance protecting the right to breastfeed in public, because breastfeeding is linked to reduced infant mortality.

“A "The story itself makes it easy for someone to say it was just one person's experience," said Ms. Echo-Hawk, who lives outside Seattle and is a citizen of the nation. Pawnee. Data, on the other hand, gets people's attention.

Ms. Echo-Hawk has since become one of the leading voices in the Indigenous data movement. She now directs the Urban Indian Health Institute and serves as executive vice president of its oversight agency, the Seattle Indian Health Board. She uses data as a tool for racial equity, using it to dismantle stereotypes, highlight disparities, and fight for funding.

Although Ms. Echo- Hawk admitted that even her own mother doesn't really understand what she does, a lot of it comes down to making sure indigenous people are taken care of.

“Her work addresses health inequities and calls attention to worrying gaps Public health data from tribal communities is nationally recognized,” said Sen. Patty Murray, Democrat of Washington , in an email. “Abigail is a changemaker in the truest sense of the word. »

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