Challenges and opportunities in the protection and preservation of indigenous knowledge in Africa

This chapter presents challenges and opportunities in the protection and preservation of indigenous knowledge (IK) in Africa. Specific examples have been taken from the Maasai pastoralists and the Sambaa and Zigua traditional medicine men of North-eastern Tanzania. The chapter argues that there is a threat of IK extinction due to […]

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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 […]

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A Different Way of Knowing: Tools and Strategies for Managing Indigenous Knowledge

There is a growing need to preserve indigenous knowledge, as indigenous communities around the world face ongoing threats to the survival of their traditional languages and cultures. Although libraries have not traditionally focused on this area, libraries and information professionals can play an important role in assisting indigenous communities with […]

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The Use of Social Media Technologies to Create, Preserve & Disseminate IK

The preservation, management, and sharing of indigenous knowledge is crucial for social and economic development in rural Africa. The high rate of illiteracy (print-based) in rural Africa and the exclusion of indigenous knowledge from Western education add to the information gap experienced in rural Africa. Other challenges facing oral cultures […]

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Social Media in Remote First Nation Communities

Community resilience in First Nations includes ties to people both inside and outside the community, intergenerational communication, the sharing of stories, and family and community connectedness. This study, based on a survey of Internet users in the Sioux Lookout region of Northwestern Ontario, explores the link between social networking sites […]

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Modeling ICT Adoption Factors for the Preservation of Indigenous Knowledge

Indigenous Knowledge (IK) has many social and economic benefits. However, IK is at the risk of extinction due to the difficulties to preserve it as most of the IK largely remains undocumented. This study aims to design a model of the factors affecting the adoption of Information and Communication Technologies […]

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Pacific and Regional Archive for Digital Sources in Endangered Cultures (PARADISEC)

The Pacific and Regional Archive for Digital Sources in Endangered Cultures offers a facility for digital conservation and access to endangered materials from all over the world. Our research group has developed models to ensure that the archive can provide access to interested communities and conforms to emerging international standards […]

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Endangered Languages and Cultures Blog at paradisec.au.org

Endangered Language and Cultures is a multi-authored blog about linguistics, language documentation, research technology, and generally everything to do with endangered languages and cultures. It is predominantly written by linguists Jane Simpson and Peter Austin, archivists from PARADISEC, and a whole slew of guest contributors.

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Ethnocomputing: Using ICT to Preserve the Culture of the People of North-Rift Region of Kenya

The impact and interaction of ICT and African culture is a critical issue as African nations position themselves to reap the benefits of ICT for development. African nations have different attitudes towards cultural regeneration and dissemination as the continent struggles to address the ambiguous role and position of culture as […]

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Towards effective management & preservation of digital cultural heritage resources

Abstract In today’s world of digital technologies, cultural heritage institutions, particularly in developed countries, are seeking ways to create national digital memories for the future of the citizenry. However, rapidly developing technologies and their concomitant technological obsolescence put future memories at risk. The challenge is enormous in developing countries that, […]

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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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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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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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Indigenous Community Stories

About Indigenous Community Stories Indigenous Community Stories records Western Australia’s Indigenous heritage, cultural and historical stories using future-proof, high definition digital video technology and professional film crews. The initiative aims to record 100 Indigenous oral histories, so they can be viewed by future generations as well as creating invaluable records […]

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Digital Preservation in a Box

Digital Preservation in a Box is a product of the National Digital Stewardship Alliance’s (NDSA) Outreach Working Group and is designed as a toolkit to support outreach activities that introduce the basic concepts of preserving digital information. The DPB provides the best available resources and tools to help you communicate […]

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National Digital Repository of South Africa

The National Digital Repository is organised into four sections: ART  |  CULTURES  |  INDIGENOUS KNOWLEDGE  |  MUSIC Vision National Digital Repository serves to collect, preserve, promote and disseminate South Africa’s cultural heritage. It is also meant to reinforce the national imperatives of fostering national identity and social cohesion. By its nature […]

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The Preservation of Canadian Indigenous Language and Culture through Education Technology

This study was a preliminary investigation into the preservation of Indigenous language and culture through educational technology. Using the research methods of an online questionnaire, on-site visits, semi-structured interviews and reflective journals, I examined current methods adopted by Aboriginal Language and Culture (ALC) teachers in British Columbia. This article provides […]

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After the Return: Digital Repatriation and the Circulation of Indigenous Knowledge

Museum Anthropology Review, Vol 7, No 1-2 (2013) This double issue of Museum Anthropology Review collects papers originally presented at a January 2012 workshop titled “After the Return: Digital Repatriation and the Circulation of Indigenous Knowledge.” Hosted by the National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution and funded by the (U.S.) […]

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New Technologies and Contested Ideologies

About the Tagish-Tlingit FirstVoices project – published in the American Indian Quarterly, Winter & Spring 2006, Vol. 30, Nos. 1 & 2. The website discussed in the article is featured below: http://www.firstvoices.ca In December 2004 representatives of the Yukon government and the First People’s Cultural Foundation of British Columbia signed […]

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The Role of ICTs in Indigenous Knowledge Preservation

Full Title: The Role of Information and Communications Technologies in Indigenous Knowledge Preservation Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) and digital technologies are omnipresent in the global information society. With the digitalisation of knowledge, including indigenous knowledge (IK), ICT‟s are offering alternative perspectives of knowledge. IK is intricate knowledge acquired over […]

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Folklore 2.0: Preservation Through Innovation

The very cultural heritage that gives indigenous peoples their identity, now far more than in the past, is under real or potential assault from those who would gather it up, strip away its honored meanings, convert it to a product, and sell it. Each time that happens the heritage itself […]

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Connecting to Collections Online Community

Our goal is to help smaller museums, libraries, archives, and historical societies get answers to collections care questions and quickly locate reliable preservation resources and to help staff members network with their colleagues. We know how many responsibilities you have and how helpful it can be to network with conservation […]

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Caring for Yesterday’s Treasures — Today

Caring for Yesterday’s Treasures — Today is a series of free, online courses about the preservation of archival and historical collections (curated by Connecting to Collections Online Community). Tailored to the needs of staff and volunteers at libraries and archives, each course has included four to six interactive webinars presented […]

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Indigenous Tweets, Visible Voices & Technology

Indigenous Tweets, Visible Voices & Technology from Kara Andrade UNESCO estimates that of the 6,000 current languages spoken today, more than half will be extinct by the start of the next century, adding that “with the disappearance of unwritten and undocumented languages, humanity will lose not only a cultural wealth, […]

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Saving Traditions: The Ngalia people of Western Australia

Excerpt A long running project of the indigenous Ngalia people of Western Australia has adapted a wide variety of technologies in their fight to preserve their traditional knowledge and culture. Back in the 1980s, the indigenous Ngalia people of Western Australia started their own community research project devoted to the […]

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