On June 3rd 2021 the Centre for Heritage and Museum Studies and the Scaffolding Cultural Co-Creativity Project hosted a workshop on Digital Platforms for Indigenous Cultural Knowledge – in support of the Kimberley Aboriginal Law and Culture’s (KALACC) Following the Trade Routes Project.
The workshop aimed to:
- Share knowledge and experiences of implementing digital platforms in support of preserving and sharing Aboriginal cultural knowledge.
- Support the use and adaptation of existing knowledge and platforms to meet KALACC’s goals for sharing and preservation of cultural knowledge.
- Support KALACC in developing digital platforms to preserve, enhance and sustain living and archival knowledge central to cultural sustainability.
KALACC has, for several years, been developing archiving and data management systems in aid of its core mission to promote Aboriginal law and culture in the Kimberley. In 2020, responding to the constraints of COVID-19, KALACC began a more comprehensive process of considering digital platforms to aid in its work, including progressing work on digitising, cataloguing and making accessible KALACC’s own archival materials; collaboratively developing processes to support the digital return of research and archival knowledge to cultural practitioners; and beginning work on the Mabu Jila digital app for recording cultural knowledge.
Speakers taking part in the Digital Platforms for Indigenous Cultural Knowledge workshop were invited to share knowledge and experience, and to engage with that of others in aid of supporting robust, culturally appropriate technical and cultural models of using digital platforms to share, preserve and protect Indigenous cultural knowledge generated through KALACCs current and future work.
Speakers included:
Aden Date speaking about The Mabu Jila project
Maui Hudson from University of Waikato and Jane Anderson from University of New York speaking about Local Contexts and Digital Traditional Knowledge Labels
Lyndon Ormond-Parker from the Centre for Heritage and Museum Studies at the Australia National University, speaking about Preserving and sharing community archives
Robyn Mackenzie and Junran Lei, from the Centre for Digital Humanities Research at the Australian National University, speaking about the Relational Museum and it’s Objects project and the Bala Lili App
Sally Treloyn from the University of Melbourne, speaking about accessing legacy Junba collections
Robyn Mackenzie and Junran Lei, from the Centre for Digital Humanities Research at the Australian National University, speaking about the Relational Museum and it’s Objects project and the Bala Lili App
Discussions in the workshop explored practical, conceptual and design issues related to creating and maintaining digital platforms for Indigenous cultural knowledge preservation and use. Topics of discussion included issues of resourcing, labour, cultural protocols, future proofing and usability for multiple purposes, and the possibilities of collaboration between inititatives and platforms.
With the permission of presenters you can see edited versions of some of the presentations below:
Aden Date speaking about The Mabu Jila project
Maui Hudson from University of Waikato and Jane Anderson from University of New York speaking about Local Contexts and Digital Traditional Knowledge Labels
Lyndon Ormond-Parker from the Centre for Heritage and Museum Studies at the Australia National University, speaking about Preserving and sharing community archives
Robyn Mackenzie and Junran Lei, from the Centre for Digital Humanities Research at the Australian National University, speaking about the Relational Museum and it’s Objects project and the Bala Lili App
Julia Miller from the Centre for Excellence in the Dynamics of Language at the Australian National University, and Jodie Kell form PARADISEC and the University of Sydney, speaking about the PARADISEC archive.