12/08/2025
Dominica Freedom Party
Tel: 1 (767) 276 0387/2853698 C/O Marinor Enterprises Limited
Email: [email protected] River Estate, Canefield
COMMONWEALTH OF DOMINICA, WEST INDIES
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Date: Tuesday August 12th 2025
Contact: Paul Baron, General Secretary – Dominica Freedom Party
Phone: +1-767-277-4101 | Email: [email protected]
Message from the Dominica Freedom Party: International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples
Theme 2025: “Indigenous Peoples and AI: Defending Rights, Shaping Futures”
Last Friday, August 8, 2025, Dominica joined the global community in reflection and celebration leading into the United Nations’ International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples on Saturday, August 9. This year’s theme—“Indigenous Peoples and AI: Defending Rights, Shaping Futures”—is more than a timely observation; it is a challenge to ensure that the digital revolution empowers, rather than erases, Indigenous identity, rights, and futures.
AI and Indigenous Self-Determination
Artificial Intelligence holds unprecedented potential for knowledge preservation, economic opportunity, and environmental stewardship. Yet, without safeguards, it can just as easily become a tool of cultural appropriation, data exploitation, and systemic bias. The UN underscores that the key lies in governance frameworks rooted in the principle of Free, Prior, and Informed Consent (FPIC)—a principle that demands communities retain the right to control their data, images, language resources, and cultural expressions.
For Dominica’s Kalinago people, this principle is not abstract. The Kalinago have endured centuries of colonial disruption, yet have maintained distinct governance structures, artisanal traditions, agro-ecological practices, and an oral heritage rich with environmental and spiritual knowledge. In the age of AI, these cultural assets are vulnerable to digitization without consent, to being extracted, commodified, and repurposed far from the community’s benefit.
Opportunities for Empowerment
When governed ethically and inclusively, AI can serve as a powerful ally for the Kalinago:
• Language Revitalization — Speech-to-text tools, community-controlled language databases, and translation technologies can help document and teach the Kalinago language to future generations.
• Cultural Heritage Preservation — Secure digital archives, owned and managed by the community, can safeguard oral histories, songs, medicinal knowledge, and craft techniques.
• Climate Adaptation and Disaster Preparedness — AI-driven environmental monitoring can merge traditional ecological wisdom with real-time data to guide land use, crop planning, and disaster response.
• Ethical Economic Development — Digital marketplaces, when controlled by the community, can open global channels for Kalinago crafts and eco-tourism, ensuring fair trade and benefit-sharing.
Risks That Must Be Guarded Against
The same tools that can uplift can also harm if deployed without oversight: algorithmic bias in search engines that misrepresent Indigenous history; deepfake media misappropriating traditional dress or identity; unregulated data scraping of sacred or private content; and AI-driven economic systems that marginalize local producers. The lesson is clear: technology must follow rights, not the other way around.
DFP’s Commitment to a Rights-Based Digital Future
The Dominica Freedom Party recognizes that the integration of AI into Indigenous life must be deliberate, principled, and collaborative. To that end, we commit to advocating for:
1. A Kalinago Digital Sovereignty Charter — Establishing community-defined protocols for any data, imagery, or language use.
2. Partnerships for Community-Owned Tech — Working with universities, NGOs, and tech companies under agreements that guarantee the Kalinago retain ownership and benefit from their cultural and linguistic assets.
3. AI Literacy and Skills Training — Ensuring Kalinago youth are equipped not just as consumers of technology but as designers, coders, and custodians of digital heritage.
4. Ethical Innovation for Real Needs — Directing AI projects toward solving challenges identified by the community itself—whether in food security, health access, or environmental resilience.
The Party of the Future
The DFP believes that sustainable development is not achieved by technology alone, but by human capacity empowered through technology. The Kalinago story is a living reminder that resilience is born of self-determination, cultural pride, and adaptive knowledge. As the party of the future, we are committed to integrating technology to address deeply rooted problems, beginning with investment in people—training, educating, and empowering our citizens to use these tools to shape a just and prosperous future for all.
To Your Success Always.
…………………………………………
Paul Baron
General Secretary
Dominica Freedom Party
