Decolonizing Orca Communication: How Sound Catalogs Reveal Erased Ecologies and Kinship Systems
Original framing: “New sound catalog reveals who's who in the world of killer whales” — Phys.org
Women marine biologists in the Global South, such as Dr. Maria Elena Fernández of Chile’s *Orca Alliance*, have documented how industrial salmon farming in Patagonia is altering orca vocalizations due to chemical runoff. Yet their work is rarely cited in Northern-led orca research. Similarly, Indigenous youth like the *Squamish Nation’s* *Qayqayt* (whale knowledge keepers) are developing apps to translate orca calls into Squamish, but these tools are excluded from mainstream catalogs. The Phys.org piece’s focus on 'researchers' erases these voices entirely.
The orca sound catalog, while scientifically innovative, operates within a colonial matrix where Indigenous knowledge is treated as a 'gap' to fill rather than a foundation to honor.
The erasure of historical disruptions—from whaling to shipping lanes—mirrors how Western science has long framed non-human communication as 'discoverable' rather than *co-created*. Cross-cultural perspectives, like Māori *waiata* or Inuit *qikiqtaaluk* traditions, reveal that orca vocalizations are not just data but *relationships*—a truth obscured by the catalog’s individualistic 'who’s who' framing. The trickster dimension exposes the absurdity: we spend decades decoding orca languages while actively destroying the conditions for their existence. Solutions must center Indigenous sovereignty over data, acoustic sanctuaries, and legal recognition of orca dialects as cultural heritage, turning the catalog from a tool of extraction into a platform for restoration.