A great debate: to show or not to show the Ngintaka songline exhibit – and who should decide?

Three articles that capture the current cultural debate around an Aborignal Australian songlines exhibit… Songlines project sparks indigenous culture war March 22, 2014, from a post written by Nicolaus Rothwell It seemed like a dream arts project for the remote western desert’s Aboriginal communities — a research and exhibition series […]

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Participatory Cultural Heritage: A Tale of Two Institutions’ Use of Social Media

The purpose of this study is to examine how and to what extent cultural heritage institutions (CHIs) are currently using social media to create a culture of participation around their digital collections and services. An environmental scan of New Zealand CHIs with a social media initiative was conducted and four […]

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Enduring Cultures – A Socio Cultural Toolkit

In the mad rush of modernization and the blind aping of Western manners, the East Indians (Roman Catholic ethnic group from the west coast of India) are slowly but steadily losing count of some of their most cherished customs and conventions, and are at the risk of being lost forever. […]

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Creating a Social Serious Game: an interdisciplinary experience among computer scientists and artists from UNLP faculties

This article describes the interdisciplinary work carried out by teachers and students of the Faculties of Fine Arts and Informatics in La Plata city, to develop a serious game for social networks related with Argentine native peoples. The game presented is a serious video game, innovative for social sciences, which […]

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Future Priorities for Development Informatics Research from the Post-2015 Development Agenda

At the end of 2015, the Millennium Development Goals will be replaced by the post-2015 development agenda (PTDA). The foundational content is in place for this new agenda, which will be the single most-important force shaping the future of international development. In planning our priorities for development informatics research – […]

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Rising Voices announces 2014 Microgrants for Citizen Media Outreach Projects

From an ILAT posting by Eddie Avila… Rising Voices has launched the 2014 Microgrants for Citizen Media Outreach Projects. Perhaps there are people on this list who might be interested in teaching others in their communities how to use digital/citizen media for language preservation and revitalization. But we are open […]

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The potential of ICTs in collecting, preserving and disseminating indigenous knowledge in Africa

This paper gives an outline of the importance of African indigenous knowledge. After that it gives the definition of information and communication technologies (ICTs) and indigenous knowledge. It then goes on to highlight examples in which information communication technologies have been used to preserve IK successfully. The paper further list […]

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Digital Memory Toolkit

The Digital Memory Toolkit aims to address a lack of digital literacy in community memory projects by giving project teams the insight and tools necessary to undertake digital memory projects. Projects of this nature commonly have twofold relevance – helping to preserve local knowledge and also empowering community members through […]

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From the Árran to the Internet: Sami Storytelling in Digital Environments

This essay investigates the use of storytelling in the process of cultural and linguistic revitalization through specific contemporary examples drawn from the Internet. By examining instances of adaptation of Sami tales and legends to digital environments, I discuss new premises and challenges for the emergence of such narratives. In particular, […]

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Why is it so hard to try something new in ICT4D?

How do you get aid workers to think about new ways of doing things and ensure technologies or tools introduced work in the local context and lead to sustainable change? As impact and scale become increasingly important, Laura Walker Hudson uncovers the barriers to making innovations work at an organisational […]

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The use of indigenous knowledge in development: problems and challenges

The use of indigenous knowledge has been seen by many as an alternative way of promoting development in poor rural communities in many parts of the world. By reviewing much of the recent work on indigenous knowledge, the paper suggests that a number of problems and tensions have resulted in […]

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Interview with Stefan Bock on HCI initiatives at BOSCO Uganda

Can you give a little background to the BOSCO Uganda Project and your role in the project? How did you become interested in working in the HCI field.BOSCO Uganda (Battery Operated Systems for Community Outreach) is a rural communications project based in Gulu, Northern Uganda. It was launched in 2007 […]

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Managing & Preserving IK in the Knowledge Management Era: challenges & opportunities

Managing knowledge in general and indigenous knowledge in particular has become an important and valuable input in the management of sustainable development programmes. Historically, indigenous knowledge has been downplayed in the management of information. The tendency among library and information professionals has been to emphasize recorded knowledge at the expense […]

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Information Technology and Indigenous Communities: symposium publication

This document sets out key issues identified in the final plenary session at the AIATSIS research symposium on information technologies and Indigenous communities. Over 70 papers were presented at ITIC on the use of information technologies by Indigenous peoples. Illustrating the strength and vibrancy of the sector, presentations were delivered […]

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Western Abenaki Dictionary

Along with the keyword searchable database of words which our site is built around, we have developed basic conjugation charts which will soon be linked to all words in their verb, noun, adjective and adverb forms. In truth, the language has no specific parts of speech, but is instead made […]

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Research is Ceremony: Indigenous Research Methods

Join Red River College and Dr. Shawn Wilson, a Manitoba-born Indigenous people research expert visiting from Australia, to learn about and explore the realm of Indigenous research. Wilson’s book, entitled “Research is Ceremony: Indigenous Research Methods” examines the philosophy underlying Indigenous peoples’ research methodologies in Canada and Australia. He will […]

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Decolonization: Indigeneity, Education & Society

An undisciplinary, peer-reviewed, online Open Access journal committed to decolonization work within education, as part of a larger project of decolonization in society. Vol 1, No 1 (2012) Vol 2, No 1 (2013) Vol 2, No 2 (2013) Focus & Scope Decolonization: Indigeneity, Education & Society solicits any work purposefully […]

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Heenetiineyoo3eihiiho’ (Language Healers) tells the story of Indigenous language revitalization

About the Film From the scribe.org website: Heenetiineyoo3eihiiho’ (Language Healers) (2014, 40 min) tells the story of Native Peoples fighting to revitalize their languages. From Alaska to Oklahoma and Wisconsin to Montana, we witness stories about the importance of saving Native languages and meet some of the people who are […]

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Apply now! Coding for Language Communities 2014

This post is adapted from Global Native Networks. It’s no secret that a handful of languages dominate the online space. A paper published last October in the journal PLOSOne (aptly titled “Digital Language Death”) found that less than five percent of the current world languages are in use online. Offline, around 7,776 […]

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Activity Situated Semiotics in Human-Computer Interaction: Digitally Augmenting Museum Experiences

In the digital age, the museum experience can be enhanced using digital technologies and expanded beyond the time and space of the visit. Instead of being just passive viewers in the exhibition, visitors can be engaged in creating and sharing digital artefacts and stories as a result of augmented museum […]

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Friend or Foe? Locating ICT Within the South African Governmental Discourse on Indigenous Knowledge Systems

The paper uses grounded theory to analyse the discourse on Indigenous Knowledge Systems within the South African government. Within this discourse, ICT is perceived both as a threat to African identity, through its potential facilitation of homogenisation and a potential ally, through its perceived potential to assist in the recording […]

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Nyungar Knowledge Networks: an Aboriginal online encyclopedia

Excerpt from “New media to throw a lifeline to an ancient language” published February 11, 2014 on the University of Western Australia website. A new project will create the world’s first Aboriginal online encyclopedia as a way of preserving the ancient and endangered Noongar language – one of Australia’s biggest […]

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