Many linguists claim as many as half of the world’s nearly 7,105 languages spoken today could disappear by the end of this century. When a language becomes extinct, communities lose their cultural identity and practices tied to a language and intellectual wealth. Preservation of endangered languages is critical, but a […]
2016 • application • crowdsourcing • endangered language • knowledge management • language | preservation • Māori • mobile • revitalization • social media
The following is an excerpt from the recently published post “It is not a village but people: Long Lamai, a case study of a smart village” on the e4sv.org website (September 15th, 2016) by Tariq Zaman, University of Malaysia Sarawak. Excerpt Long Lamai is a Penan village in upper Baram, […]
Long Lamai • Malaysia • Sarawak • technology • telecenter
This Atlas is the result of an international collaboration of more than thirty linguists from around the world, some of whom had already been involved in the previous two editions. The editor-in-chief is Christopher Moseley, whose works include the Encyclopedia of the World’s Endangered Languages (London: Routledge 2007) and the […]
endangered language • indigenous language • language | preservation • language map
The aim of this web application is to draw attention to the pressing issue of language endangerment. We hope that the map illustrates the huge number of distinct languages around the world in the present day, and implies that there is much to be lost, socially and culturally, if the […]
application • database • endangered language • Glottolog • indigenous language • interactive • mapping
Note: I had the pleasure of working with Joe Bruchac and his family while serving as the Education Director of the Ndakinna Education Center (a cultural arts non-profit in Upstate New York). His stories have played a notable role in my own family – my sons were raised listening to […]
Bruchac • oral tradition • story • technology
This paper focuses on the impact of technology (computers, the Internet, iPods) on the transmission of oral tradition, specifically the cantillation of the Torah, in the contemporary Jewish community. The highly detailed and musically nuanced public recitation of the Torah require that the reader memorize both the pronunciation of unvocalized Hebrew text and the […]
2012 • bar mitzvah • bat mitzvah • cantillation • community • impact of | ICTs • Jewish • oral tradition • Torah
Minangkabau society is very well known of their oral tradition named kaba babarito that expresses a message from one to others orally. Oral tradition of Minangkabau is very strong in many aspects of life, for example the tradition of maota di lapau (chatting on lapau), which is one way for […]
2012 • culture | preservation • indigenous / traditional knowledge • Indonesia • kaba babarito • Minangkabau • oral traditionWe present THE GLOTTOLOG DATA EXPLORER, an interactive web application in which the world’s languages are mapped using a JavaScript library in the ‘Shiny’ framework for R (Chang et al., 2016). The world’s languages and major dialects are mapped using coordinates from the Glottolog database (Hammarström et al., 2016). The […]
2016 • application • database • endangered language • Glottolog • indigenous language • interactive • mappingTraditional art and craft, practiced by various craft-guilds in the country are the evidence of Indian cultural heritage. Though the narratives depicted in the form of painted façade or scroll-paintings are the genesis of traditional Indian visual language, the scarcity of public awareness and seclusion from the mass is becoming […]
2016 • art • cultural heritage • culture | preservation • digital heritage • India • new mediaFor millennia, indigenous peoples have transferred knowledge to younger generations and amongst each other in a number of ways. In this chapter, the authors draw on their collective experience to discuss the dialogue and approaches that have emerged when using information and communications technologies (ICT) to represent indigenous knowledge (IK) […]
2016 • Arctic • cultural protocols • culture | preservation • ELOKA • ICTs • indigenous / traditional knowledge • researchThe 2015 Festival was hosted by IRCA in partnership with PAW Media and Communications and the Lajamanu community with key partner Indigenous Community Television. For 5 days remote media workers and industry guests visited Gurindji and Warlpiri Country for an exciting industry program with skills workshops, roundtables, video screenings, live radio and TV […]
aboriginal • Australia • festival • indigenousLocal Contexts is an initiative to support Native, First Nations, Aboriginal, and Indigenous communities in the management of their intellectual property and cultural heritage specifically within the digital environment. Local Contexts provides legal, extra-legal, and educational strategies for navigating copyright law and the public domain status of this valuable cultural […]
aboriginal • cultural heritage • digital collections • digital environments • First Nations • indigenous / traditional knowledge • indigenous communities • intellectual property • local contextsFunding Opportunity Expected Number of Awards: 30 Posted Date: Jun 28, 2016 Closing Date for Applications: Sep 15, 2016 Estimated Total Program Funding: $4,000,000 Description This funding partnership between the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) supports projects to develop and advance knowledge concerning […]
archive • endangered language • language | preservation • NSFThis paper addresses the decolonizing potential of Indigenous counter-mapping in the context of (what is now called) Canada.After historicizing cartography as a technique of colonial power, and situating Indigenous counter-mapping as an assertion of political and intellectual sovereignty, we examine the digital map of Amiskwaciwâskahikan (Plains Cree for Edmonton, Alberta) […]
2016 • Amiskwaciwâskahikan • Canada • counter-mapping • decolonization • digital • mappingOur pictorial visually describes ʔeləw̓ k ̓ʷ — Belongings, an interactive tangible tabletop installed in the Museum of Anthropology at the University of British Columbia. The tabletop was designed to communicate the continuity of Musqueam culture, convey the complexity of belongings that were excavated from Musqueam’s ancient village site, and […]
2016 • Belongings • design • interactive • knowledge tradition • Musqueam • oral history • tabletop • tangible system • user interface • ʔeləw̓ k̓ʷThis is an exciting time for digitizing indigenous history. Leading digital humanists are engaging tribal communities in the creation of powerful online archives. The groundbreaking Mukurtu content management system (CMS), for example, is built on the very premise of indigenous curation or co-curation; it lets indigenous people control exactly what […]
2014 • archive • curation • digital collections • indigenous • indigenous communities • language | preservation • Mukurtu • postcolonial • revitalization
For some years, the Cherokee Nation has hosted a digital archive that includes stories in the Cherokee language, available to anyone who registers for the Nation’s free online language classes or requests them to be sent in DVD format. On the ᏣᎳᎩ ᏗᎧᏃᎮᏍᏓ & ᏗᎧᏃᎩᏓ /tsalagi dikanohesda & dikanogida/ Cherokee […]
2013 • archive • Cherokee • digital collections • indigenous language • language | preservation • storytelling • wampumAbstract: Recently the commons has become a predominant metaphor for the types of social relationships between people, ideas, and new digital technologies. In IP debates, the commons signifies openness, the exclusion of intermediaries, and remix culture that is creative, innovative, and politically disobedient. This article examines the material and social […]
2005 • commons • cultural protocols • culture | preservation • DVD • intellectual property • kinship • open access • remix • WarumunguThe “information wants to be free” meme was born some 20 years ago from the free and open source software development community. In the ensuing decades, information freedom has merged with debates over open access, digital rights management, and intellectual property rights. More recently, as digital heritage has become a […]
2012 • digital heritage • digital rights management • indigenous / traditional knowledge • information freedom • information system • knowledge systems • open access • open sourceThe authors suggest that postcolonial science studies can do more than expand answers to questions already posed; it can generate different questions and different ways of looking at the world. To illustrate, the authors draw on existing histories and anthropologies and critical theories of colonial and postcolonial technoscience. To move […]
2010 • colonization / colonialism • HCI4D • human computer interaction • indigenous / traditional knowledge • postcolonial • science studiesThis study examined the potential of using digital storytelling as a mechanism for materials development and Indigenous language learning. Study participants (N = 4) were interviewed after a series of three digital storytelling workshops offered in a First Nations community. The findings of the study support the use of digital […]
2016 • digital storytelling • education • First Nations • indigenous communities • indigenous language • language | preservationThis study voices serious concern about the sustainable development of Malay digital local cultural content. Digital local content is crucial in learning local cultural subjects in Asia countries, such as Malay culture. However, there is a serious lack of digital local content for mobile learning purposes in Malaysia. One of […]
challenges • culture • education • local content • Malaysia • Mat Salleh • mobileThe use of social media and digital technologies has grown rapidly in Australia and around the world, including among Indigenous young people who face social disadvantage. Given the potential to use social media for communication, providing information and as part of creating and responding to social change, this paper explores […]
2016 • Australia • digital tools • impact of | ICTs • indigenous communities • social change • social media • youthAn article by David Shorter, professor and vice-chair of the Department of World Arts and Cultures/Dance at the University of California in Los Angeles. Originally published 5/14/16 on Indian Country Today. Excerpt: In 2002, I began working on my first website that would feature ethnographic and self-representations of the Yoeme people in northwest […]
2016 • indigenous aesthetics • indigenous language • photographs • representation • WIL • YoemeTahltan Language Conservation Initiative Project (TLCIP) is a grassroots conservation effort that will focus on the preservation of the severely endangered Tahltan Language. There are only 16 fluent native Tahltan speakers alive today and all but two are over the age of seventy. TLCIP will work with the remaining speakers […]
conservation • First Nations • language | preservation • Tahltan