The Language Sustainability Toolkit

From the Wikitongues.org website: “If you’re worried about the future of your language, this toolkit is a great place to start. In partnership with the Living Tongues Institute for Endangered Languages, we have identified a set of best practices for launching your own language revitalization.” Toolkit Introduction This Language Sustainability […]

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Saratoga Native American Festival Education Guide

I had the opportunity to serve as the organizer for the Saratoga Native American Festival for its first two years in operation (2006 and 2007) while working as the Education Director for the Ndakinna Education Center. Since 2017, I have served as an Ndakinna board member. One of my responsibilities […]

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Digitalising and preserving Oroo, a secret sign language of the nomadic Penans in the rainforest

In 2014, ISITI-UNIMAS, NUST and Long Lamai community with the support of Information Society Innovation Fund Asia (ISIF), initiated a project to digitalise and preserve the Oroo’ the sign language of the nomadic Penans in the rainforests of Borneo. Oroo’ is a living cultural heritage of the Penan which, from […]

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Terpsichore

Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) content means “the practices, representations, expressions, knowledge, skills – as well as the instruments, objects, artefacts and cultural spaces associated therewith”. Although, ICH content, especially traditional folklore performing arts, is commonly deemed worthy of preservation by UNESCO (Convention for the Safeguarding of ICH) and the EU […]

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Transforming Intangible Folkloric Performing Arts into Tangible Choreographic Digital Objects: The Terpsichore Approach

Abstract: Intangible Cultural Heritage is a mainspring of cultural diversity and as such it should be a focal point in cultural heritage preservation and safeguarding endeavours. Nevertheless, although significant progress has been made in digitization technology as regards tangible cultural assets and especially in the area of 3D reconstruction, the […]

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The Language of Cataloguing: Deconstructing and Decolonizing Systems of Organization in Libraries

This paper analyzes the language of cataloguing because the information that librarians and other information professionals provide to others has a huge impact both on how others are viewed and how others view themselves. This ultimately comes down to the way in which words are given meaning and interpreted according […]

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Myaamia Dictionary: “myaamiaatawaakani”

myaamiaatawaakani (Myaamia Dictionary) is the dictionary app of the Myaamia language, also known as the Miami-Illinois language, with English translations. Search for words in English or Myaamia. Browse all terms alphabetically. Includes audio to help with pronunciation. If a term is missing, use the feedback function to suggest its addition. […]

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Passamaquoddy-Maliseet Language Portal

The Passamaquoddy-Maliseet Language Portal hosts 3 interoperable databases (videos of natural group conversation, dictionary entries, and audio files), allowing the user to click on a word in a video sub-title to see the entire dictionary entry for the word and then listen to audio recordings of that word as well […]

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Determinants of Indigenous Student Learning with Digital Technology: A Qualitative Study

Full Title: Determinants of Indigenous Student Learning with Digital Technology: A Qualitative Study in a Remote Manitoba First Nations Community Abstract The goal of this qualitative study was to identify the determinants that assist remote postsecondary Indigenous Canadian learners (in an isolated fly-in only community) to adapt and orient themselves […]

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Indigitization: Toolkit for the Digitization of First Nations Knowledge

The Indigitization Grant Program is a grant funding opportunity sponsored by the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre at the University of British Columbia1, Museum of Anthropology at the University of British Columbia, the University of Northern British Columbia, and the School of Library, Archival, and Information Studies at UBC. The […]

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The plight of digitizing culture in one cartoon

“It’s unsettling to realize how quickly digital resources can disappear without ongoing work to maintain them.” Thanks to my friend Daniel Schuldt for sharing this with me.

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Evaluating How ICT Interventions Affect the Wellbeing of Indigenous Communities in the North Rupununi, Guyana

Having its roots in computer science and information systems, the field of information and communication technologies (ICT) in development has arguably been dominated by technocentric approaches, mainly concerned with describing and managing the mechanisms of technology diffusion and adoption. However, the high failure rate of many ICT for development (ICT4D) […]

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Collaborative research and methodological decolonization with video cameras

Note: I am thankful to have received an email from Dr. Juan Carlos Sandoval today letting me know about this recently published paper. I look forward to learning about more of his research! Cheers, Mark This article reports the development of a collaborative research through the use of a participatory […]

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Convergence of Digital Media with the Traditional Folk Media in Assam: A Qualitative Analysis

The study stresses on the convergence of digital media with the traditional folk media in Assam (a state of India), and tries to shade some practical lights on the effects of digital media into the field of folk media. The research methodology used in this study is qualitative in nature; […]

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Anthwerrke (Emily Gap) Interactive Tour app

Central Land Council Press Release: Traditional owners of Anthwerrke (Emily Gap) have invested their rent income from the Yeperenye/Emily and Jessie Gaps Nature Park in an interactive visitor experience at the sacred site near Alice Springs. They will launch the interactive tour with CLC chair Francis Kelly, the Member for […]

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Video games and Indigenous education: Let’s bridge the ‘epistemology gap’

There are clear challenges posed by rural and remote education in Australia. These challenges are caused both by physical and material factors, but more importantly epistemological divisions that have created a separation between Indigenous and non-Indigenous worlds. Video games have the potential to bridge this epistemological gap by explicating the […]

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The Same, but Different: Indigenous Knowledge Retention, Erosion, and Innovation in the Brazilian Amazon

This study explores how indigenous knowledge (IK) might be retained and/or changed among contemporary indigenous peoples. Through semi-structured interviews and quantitative analyses of long-term changes in artistic knowledge among three geographically displaced Kaiabi (Kawaiwete) we found an association between language proficiency and gender with greater IK retention, and formal schooling […]

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Connected Activism: Indigenous Uses of Social Media for Shaping Political Change

Prior studies describe digital tactics as specific strategies actors apply within broader repertoires of contention, specifically in social and political contexts. A comparison of EZLN, Idle No More, and the ongoing Rio Yaqui water rights movement reveals the kinds of community knowledge work that has to happen prior to and […]

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The Use of ICTs and E-learning in Indigenous Education

Excerpt With the increase in land claim agreements, renegotiation of treaty rights and local control of resource development, many Indigenous communities are engaging in the use of new media and information technologies in the process of self-determination. This direct control and involvement leads to issues of preservation and sustainable development […]

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Digital Colonization and Virtual Indigeneity: Indigenous Knowledge and Algorithm Bias

A growing body of research examining the role of technology in indigenous knowledge production and distribution has helped define the new ways that communities are connecting to each other and organizing around the world. At the same time, social justice activist focus in the United States has turned to the […]

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Technology, the Indigenous and the Revitalization of Languages at Risk of Extinction

This paper aims to analyze the use of technology in indigenous environments as an instrument to preserve their culture and language. We also aimed here to display results of a first version of a cataloguing system we have been developing to store words from the Xacriabá language. We think that […]

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Digital Storytelling as Arts-Inspired Inquiry for Engaging, Understanding, and Supporting Indigenous Youth

In this paper we examine digital storytelling as a mode of arts-inspired inquiry: in particular we consider digital storytelling as a powerful arts-inspired approach that can help researchers, practitioners, and communities understand and support indigenous and marginalized youth. Our two-fold focus is on: (1) a digital storytelling initiative that engaged […]

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Word of Mouth: Orality in Africa

“Word of Mouth” provides information on the significance of orality in African countries. The internet project thus aims to build bridges between societies shaped by oral traditions and the predominantly text-based global knowledge society. In addition, “Word of Mouth” presents information on German activities in the field of orality, thus […]

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Indigenous Media in Mexico: Culture, Community, and the State

Videography is a powerful tool for recording and representing aspects of human society and culture, and anthropologists have long used – and debated the use of – video as a tool to study indigenous and traditional peoples. Indigenous people themselves, however, have increasingly turn video towards their own cultural and […]

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