Epistemic Justice in Land Rights

Sor Juana confronted a system that denied women's capacity for intellectual truth-telling. Similarly, Indigenous peoples face epistemic injustice—their knowledge about land is dismissed as superstition, folklore, or sentiment rather than recognized as legitimate knowing. This concept demands that Indigenous testimonies about territorial history, ecological relationships, and land management be treated as authoritative knowledge claims deserving serious consideration. When Indigenous elders speak of land's sacred properties or describe sustainable practices developed over centuries, these are not quaint beliefs but true statements about reality. Epistemic justice requires institutional change: recognizing Indigenous languages as vehicles of truth, funding Indigenous research frameworks, and centering Indigenous voices in decisions about land. Sor Juana's struggle for recognition as a thinking subject finds its parallel in Indigenous demands to be heard as knowers.