The More Things Change

An 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 […]

 •   •   •   •   •   • 

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 […]

 •   •   •   •   • 

Reviving extinct languages the mobile way

Excerpt from source: Sunkanmi Olaleye – a master’s student in computer science – is investigating how novel mobile technology can interface with African digital heritage documents as a way of preserving the extinct |Xam language. “So many languages in Africa are becoming extinct. There’s this craving for English, at the […]

 •   •   •   •   •   •   •   • 

Indigenous Australians and ICTs (blog post)

Blurb: “I think I have witnessed both the empowering and disempowering aspects of ICTs enough to have developed a significant amount of skepticism toward the technology and especially the unnerving tendency of people to use it to amplify our pre-existing conditions rather than solve any problems. I guess I am […]

 •   •   •   •   •   •   • 

Using GIS Technology to Reach Afro-Colombian and Indigenous Populations

Colombian GIS Expert Carlos Julio Neisa is always looking for innovative ways to use maps and geographic data. To him, GPS coordinates can open up a world of possibilities that allow ACDI/VOCA’s Afro-Colombian and Indigenous Program (ACIP) team to design better programs. Ethnic minority populations are among the most marginalized […]

 •   •   •   •   •   •   •   • 

Heliox: free software to assist indigenous access to computers

Excerpt Indigenous communities may benefit from new computer technology that allows them to access educational resources and the internet using their own language, says the software’s developer. The innovation comes from an international, interdisciplinary group that is currently working on using the technology to reduce the digital gap and help […]

 •   •   •   •   •   •   • 

A Lifeline for Endangered Languages

During a gruelling interview at the All Things Digital conference, on May 28th, Walt Mossberg cut off the Apple C.E.O. Tim Cook mid-sentence to raise an uncomfortable subject for the company. “There is a level of control that you exercise—curation, one might say, not just in your app store but […]

 •   •   •   •   •   • 

Wathaurung use technology to take control of their cultural heritage

For over 25,000 years, the land around Ballarat, Geelong and the Bellarine Peninsula has been inhabited by the Wathaurung people. Traditionally, important cultural knowledge was passed down the generations through word of mouth. Today, a simple yet groundbreaking piece of mapping software is allowing the Wathaurung to pinpoint and record […]

 •   •   •   •   •   •   •   • 

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 […]

 •   •   •   •   •   • 

Backward Compatible: Cybertracker fuses ancient knowledge with cutting-edge technology

Excerpt: CyberTracker creator Louis Liebenberg, a South African scientist and author, first came up with the idea in 1996 while tracking with a group of Kalahari Bushmen. Liebenberg realized that he could help save the Bushmen’s rapidly disappearing knowledge if he could find a way to help trackers, who could […]

 •   •   •   •   • 

Ethnography Beyond Text and Print: How the digital can transform ethnographic expressions

Excerpt I’m not advocating for abolishing academic book publishing. Others have and have discussed the economic and ideological structure that supports academic publishing and valorizes the monograph.) Instead, I want to make room for a serious consideration of ethnographic expressions that are not strictly based in text, either in the […]

 •   •   •   •   •   •   • 

Preserving the Voice of Vanishing Cultures

Excerpt Chris Rainier has spent three decades photographing ancient cultures, often in places that cartographers have labeled uncharted, among “peoples from the past who were living in the present.” As he has repeatedly returned to New Guinea, South America and Africa, he has witnessed an onslaught of global American culture […]

 •   •   •   •   •   • 

Community Maps Can Empower Indigenous Peoples to Assert Land Rights

An Australian-Filipino mining company during a September 2011 public consultation mobilized its “experts.” Their goal: to persuade local officials and indigenous and local communities about the “safety, merits and sustainability” of the company’s US$5.8-billion project in southern Philippines. The “experts” were armed with figures, graphs and pictures all showing the […]

 •   •   • 

Social Media: Brazil’s Indigenous Tribes Go Online in their Struggle To Be Heard

Brazil has several marginalized groups that often don’t have a voice in government decision-making and are invisible to the majority of the country’s population. One such group, the country’s indigenous tribes, must constantly fight for their land against farmers and developers. Conflicts arise regularly but very few of them reach […]

 •   •   •   •   • 

Cultural Differences, Technological Imperialism and Indigenous GIS

Summary Do all people, from all cultures and all languages, think about geographic space and geographic processes in more or less the same way? Or are there significant cross-cultural variations in how different peoples conceptualize and reason about geographic processes, features and places? Dr. David Mark of the State University […]

 •   •   •   •   • 

ICTs and the spread of indigenous knowledge

At first glance, the relationship between indigenous knowledge and the Internet seems fraught. Indigenous knowledge provides a distinct set of beliefs, practices and representations avidly tied to place; the internet lauds itself for erasing boundaries and borders. On one hand, the traditions encapsulated in indigenous knowledge are culturally unique, using […]

 •   •   •   •   • 

Building Human-Centered Design into ICT4D Projects

An interview with Danny Alexander and Sean Hewens of IDEO.org Originally published on the Best Practice in ICT4D: A Conversation blog Sean Hewens is knowledge manager and in-house counsel at IDEO.org. He oversees IDEO.org’s mission to spread human-centered design throughout the social sector. In his role as Knowledge Manager, Sean […]

 •   •   •   •   • 

Smartphones promoted as a tool for indigenous forest protection

Excerpt Smartphones beeping in the woods may be a welcome presence that augurs the increased ability of indigenous communities to be stewards of their own biodiverse forests. Representatives of these communities and their supporters have advocated that international conservation policies like Reduced Emissions through Deforestation and Degradation (REDD) be increasingly […]

 •   •   •   •