In Search of An Oral Form of Design: Mobilizing Inuit Cultural Heritage

This paper explores the notion of an “oral form of design” in response to questions at the heart of a new major partnership project titled “Mobilizing Inuit Cultural Heritage.” It brings together Inuit and Qallunaat (non-Inuit) who are all engaged in various ways of exploring the cognitive and cultural gap […]

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The Myth of the Universal User: Pursuing a Cultural Variable in ICT Design for Conflict Management

Full Title: The Myth of the Universal User: Pursuing a Cultural Variable in ICT Design for Conflict Management through Quantitative Analysis: Implications from a Ugandan Case Study This study took a novel experimental approach from the field of cognitive linguistics to quantitatively describe the impact of culture on the use […]

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Dancing the Mask, Potlatching the Exhibition: Performing Art and Culture in a Global Museum World

Impelled by globalization and decolonization, many museums today seek to position themselves within a global frame of reference which is more genuinely inclusive than was the modernist construct of the “universal” museum. Yet in their renewed encounters with the world, museums are also being challenged to recognize the particularity – […]

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Language app: Nez Perce

A mobile application providing words and phrases in the Nez Perce Language. Containing over 1000 words, there are several categories including Basics, Phrases, People, and Animals. Note: The swastika design featured in the app logo is the Nez Perce “whirling log” design which signifies good luck.

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Technology for Autonomy and Resistance: The Appropriate Technology Movement in South America

Between the 1970s and 1980s appropriate technology (AT) become a worldwide grassroots innovation movement that sought to redefine technology as a tool for development. In South America, AT emerged in a context of political upheaval between the challenge of political repression and the influence of new forms of activism and […]

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Oaxaca Workshops: Digital Tools for the Preservation and Dissemination of Traditional Knowledge

I am honored to be returning to Mexico next week to facilitate a workshop on WordPress and Other Open Source Technologies for the Preservation and Dissemination of Traditional Knowledge. The workshops (mine is one of four) will take place throughout the week in Oaxaca City. If you’re in that neck […]

Indigenization of Knowledge Organization at the Xwi7xwa Library

This paper examines the Indigenization of knowledge organization within library and information studies through conceptual analysis and a descriptive case study of an Aboriginal academic library, the Xwi7xwa Library at the University of British Columbia, Canada. We begin by locating the library in place and time, review its historical development […]

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Indigenous Knowledge Governance Framework (IKGF): A Holistic Model for Indigenous Knowledge Management

The environmental and social conditions that indigenous communities interact with the external environment are characterized by a constantly increasing degree of complexity. The interaction between different cultures can be considered a multifaceted process of negotiation. It is well acknowledged that the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) for indigenous […]

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It’s like going to a cemetery and lighting a candle: Aboriginal Australians, Sorry Business and social media

Death and funeral practices are a constant presence in many Aboriginal Australians’ lives—research in some communities found they are eight times more likely to have attended a funeral in the previous 2 years than non- Aboriginal people. This can be explained by two major factors: inordinately high rates of Aboriginal […]

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A Yoruba Cultural Tradition Repository Knowledge Based System

In recent years researchers and experts have traditionally focused on how to enhance the look and functionality of how life issues are been tackled with respect to Africa cultural tradition for academic purposes and the development of cultural traditional system. Also, the discrimination between English and Yoruba language in the […]

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A Mobile Game World for Māori Language Learning

This project involves the research, development and evaluation of a mobile assisted language learning tool that teaches some aspects of the Maori language within a virtual game world. The Maori language has been going through a process of rejuvenation since the mid-1900s. A wide range of multimedia resources have been […]

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At the Intersection of Indigenous and Traditional Knowledge and Technology Design

There is intensified interest in designing information and communication technologies (ICTs) that respond to ways of doing, knowing, and saying that differ from those that dominate in producing ICTs and, in particular, to ‘traditional’ or ‘indigenous’ knowledges. ICT endeavours for indigenous or traditional knowledges (ITK) vary. Some aim to extend […]

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Principles for Digital Development

The Principles for Digital Development are “living” guidelines that can help development practitioners integrate established best practices into technology-enabled programs. They are written by and for international development donors, multilateral organizations, and implementing partners, and they are freely available for use by all. The Principles are intended to serve as […]

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Archival Aspirations and Anxieties: Contemporary Preservation and Production of the Past in Umbumbulu, KwaZulu-Natal

This paper explores the contemporary preservation and production of the past in Umbumbulu, near Durban in KwaZulu-Natal. It examines the Ulwazi Programme, a web initiative run through the eThekwini Municipality that uses the existing library infrastructure, new digital technologies and municipal residents to create what its advocates term a collaborative, […]

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Digital Memory Toolkit – a free resource to assist community projects

Recently, Niall McNulty (of McNulty Consulting) and Brigitte Doellgast (of the Goethe-Institut) were awarded Best Poster at the 2015 IFLA World Library and Information Congress in Cape Town, South Africa. Click on the poster image below to see it full size… Congratulations to Brigitte and Niall! You can find Niall […]

Digital Data Management as Indigenous Resurgence in Kahnawà:ke

Indigenous peoples are addressing the ongoing impacts of settler colonialism through a variety of expressions of community resurgence. Among these initiatives are those leveraging digital technologies. In the emergent network society, digital infrastructures, and information and communication technologies are powerful tools that can support self-government. In this context, we document […]

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el Acervo Digital de la Cultura y Lengua Nomatsigenga

Archive of the Nomatsigenga Language and Culture About – in Nomatsigenga Ira nomatsigengajegi kara atimaigiri iroonti agibatsiteegi,aisati pinageti tojai ikantagetaigira ira ogotasantaigira ira acharineegi kara jirai inagaegi kantanè yomagisantaigéro ora ikantaigira jirainisati.oka igoigira ironta asiegi ikoigagininta osangenatokotagima. komanoroni ingomantèro irasi iboina matsigenga ira inaiganatsinera.aro kara igoiganake yobetsikaigotanaka kara ikantaigari inibaretsajegikè […]

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Development of Cross-Language Information Retrieval for Resource-Scarce African Languages

As we move towards an increasingly globalized and knowledge-based economy, the ability to discover and share information across language and cultural boundaries has become more and more crucial. With the advent and rapid development of the Internet, the amount of information generated in different languages and disseminated via the World […]

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Digital storytelling & Co-creative Media: …community arts & media in propagating & coordinating population-wide creative practice

Introduction How is creative expression and communication extended among whole populations? What is the social and cultural value of this activity? What roles do formal agencies, community based organisations and content producer networks play? Specifically, how do participatory media and arts projects and networks contribute to building this capacity in […]

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Towards the enhancement of Arctic digital industries: ‘Translating’ cultural content to new media platforms

This paper proposes a preliminary framework for digital ‘translation’ attempting to, (while cognisant of conceptual limitations embedded in this model) localise aspects of Inuit knowledge, culture and IQ (in the sense of Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit) into digital artifacts for new generations of Inuit and non-Inuit learners. In addition to delineating challenges […]

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From vivid to virtual memory: The Philippine epics and ballads multimedia archive

Introduction (from page 127) I shall address you as a linguist-anthropologist working in the Philippines, where I first arrived in October 1969. I follow the teachings of A-G. Haudricourt, G. Condominas, and J.M.C. Thomas and L. Bouquiaux in this approach in anthropological linguistics. I am familiar with epic chanting and […]

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Understanding Indigenous Peoples’ Information Practices and Internet Use: a Ngarrindjeri Perspective

Little is known about indigenous people’s interactions with the Internet as well as their attitudes, values, and skills in using the Internet and information and communication technologies to retain their knowledge. We present the preliminary results of the research undertaken with Ngarrindjeri people living from the Lower Murray River Lakes […]

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Talking book gives new voice to Indigenous languages

Kawarla: How to Make a Coolamon is the result of extensive language documentation work conducted in the Gurindji community in the Northern Territory. Dr Felicity Meakins, from UQ’s School of Languages and Cultures, worked with Gurindji elders Biddy Wavehill and Violet Wadrill to create the book. “The audio is linked […]

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The Virtual and the Vegetal: Creating a ‘Living’ Biocultural Heritage Archive through Digital Storytelling Approaches

FloraCultures is an online archive currently being developed in consultation with Kings Park and Botanic Garden in Perth, Western Australia. The archive will showcase the ‘botanical heritage’ of indigenous plant species found in the extant bushland areas of Kings Park near the heart of the city. A selection of multimedia […]

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Storing and sharing wisdom and traditional knowledge in the library

Traditional library practice focuses on print collections and developing collections of materials that have been published, which means the documents have gone through some kind of review or vetting process. This practice leaves a wide swath of potential knowledge out of the collection. For example, indigenous knowledge, beliefs, and experience […]

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