Born from Lithium Minds

This paper examines the relationship between digital spaces and the Land, proposing a framework that maps the origins of digital space to contextualize our relationships with lithium. Lithium, in the form of batteries, enables us to work remotely and online, birthing the possibility of different technologies while also tying said technologies to mining and extraction. Through this lens of layered relationships, the paper interrogates the metaphors and technological languages used to disconnect digital spaces from the Land and obscure the settler-colonial practices of extraction underpinning them. By tracing my own relationships to the Lands and waters destroyed to produce the batteries in my computer, I aim to reimagine these connections and offer an alternative perspective. Rather than presenting a definitive solution, this paper advocates for using metaphors against colonial structures to envision other worlds where digital spaces are recognized as rooted in both Land and kinship relations. The conclusions are that Data is sacred and kin; Data is born from the Land; Land connects multiple worlds; and digital spaces are Land. These conclusions aim to re-think settler-colonial extraction by recognizing the sacred interconnections between Land, digital spaces, and the materials that power our technologies.