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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Does Information Really Want to be Free? Indigenous Knowledge Systems and the Question of Openness

The “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 […]

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Indigenous Knowledge Management in the Kelabit community in E. Malaysia: insights & reflections for contemporary KM design

Knowledge audits and assessment help organisations to identify the status of knowledge processes and develop strategies to manage their knowledge-based assets. The structure of Indigenous Knowledge Management Systems (IKMS) is different from the organisation’s Knowledge Management (KM) systems and mainly based on the tacit and implicit knowledge forms. Hence, the […]

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Creating Digital Heritage content: bridging communities and mediating perspectives

In this paper we focus our attention on an often overlooked aspect of digital heritage content, namely by whom how, and with what purpose such content is created. We evaluate digital materials that are anthropological and archaeological in nature, both digitized archives and newly created materials. In our work and […]

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Determining Requirements within an Indigenous Knowledge System of African Rural Communities

Eliciting and analyzing requirements within knowledge systems, which fundamentally differ so far from technology supported systems represent particular challenges. African rural communities’ life is deeply rooted in an African Indigenous knowledge system manifested in their practices such as Traditional Medicine. We describe our endeavors to elicit requirements to design a system to support the accumulation and sharing […]

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Strangers on the Land: Place and Indigenous Multimedia Knowledge Systems

Leggett and Dyson are non-indigenous Australians interested in the potential of designing new media applications that are sensitive to and productive for indigenous peoples. Their research has focussed on development of new media systems that reflect indigenous world-views, particularly with relation to established knowledge-sharing protocols. They demonstrate that there is […]

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Towards appropriate user interface design preserving rural African communication practices

This mini-thesis examines different socio-cultural norms and communication behaviours of indigenous communities. In spite of existing Information Communication Technology (ICT) infrastructural challenges, the software solutions that have been designed for rural communities have been a major concern. In this thesis, qualitative methodologies were used with deliberate sampling of two village […]

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The use of indigenous knowledge in development: problems and challenges

The use of indigenous knowledge has been seen by many as an alternative way of promoting development in poor rural communities in many parts of the world. By reviewing much of the recent work on indigenous knowledge, the paper suggests that a number of problems and tensions have resulted in […]

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Friend or Foe? Locating ICT Within the South African Governmental Discourse on Indigenous Knowledge Systems

The paper uses grounded theory to analyse the discourse on Indigenous Knowledge Systems within the South African government. Within this discourse, ICT is perceived both as a threat to African identity, through its potential facilitation of homogenisation and a potential ally, through its perceived potential to assist in the recording […]

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Indigenous Knowledge: Local Pathways to Global Development

The cases presented here demonstrate how communities and local practitioners use indigenous knowledge systems and practices to help increase their crop yields, educate their children, reduce suffering from HIV/AIDS, decrease infant and maternal mortality, heal the impact of conflict, learn from each other, and empower themselves. The cases also suggest […]

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Indilinga: African Journal of Indigenous Knowledge Systems (IAJIKS)

Welcome to Indilinga: African Journal of Indigenous Knowledge Systems (IAJIKS) is an independent and fully accredited publication. The name Indilinga: stands for the “circular orientation” of indigenous African communities which is exhibited in their material culture and behaviour. The journal has been motivated by the need for a dependable expression […]

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Fragile memories: Indigenous knowledge and development

Abstract This paper examines the nature of knowledge with particular reference to so-called “indigenous knowledge” and its treatment within development interventions. It highlights some of the theoretical arguments and different sides of the debate concerning hierarchies of knowledge with development narratives and discourse. Much indigenous knowledge is contained in oral […]

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Alaska Native Knowledge Network

The Alaska Native Knowledge Network (ANKN) is an AKRSI partner designed to serve as a resource for compiling and exchanging information related to Alaska Native knowledge systems and ways of knowing. It has been established to assist Native people, government agencies, educators and the general public in gaining access to […]

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Centre for Indian Knowledge Systems (CIKS)

In India, there is a large reservoir of knowledge systems – technologies as well as trained craftsmen and scholars who possess knowledge in various branches of traditional Indian sciences and technologies. These span vast and varied areas like agriculture, architecture, metallurgy, metal working, health care systems and textiles, and also […]

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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 […]

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ICTs for Indigenous Knowledge Preservation

Public libraries in South Africa engage with local communities to preserve indigenous knowledge. This involves teaching them to use ICT tools. Indigenous knowledge affects the well-being of the majority of people in developing countries. Some 80% of the world’s population depends on indigenous knowledge to meet their medicinal needs, and […]

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Words, Ontologies and Aboriginal databases

This paper tells of a group of people working in the increasingly digitised context of teaching and researching Aboriginal languages and cultures in a university context, and in remote Aboriginal communities. The first phase involved the development of digital archives with CDs and a website for university teaching purposes. The […]

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The Role of Information Technologies in Indigenous Knowledge Management

Increasingly, communities and organisations around the world are realising the value and significance of Indigenous Knowledge and the importance of preserving it for future generations. Indigenous Knowledge Centres (IKCs) are being established globally, but particularly in Australia, Africa, Latin America and Asia. The capture and preservation of Indigenous Knowledge is […]

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Digitisation of Community Indigenous Knowledge in Developing Countries: A Strategy for Uganda

Abstract Ugandans aspire for positive cultural values for the promotion of socio-economic development and equal opportunities for all – a heritage that is free of negative cultural values, practices and traditions. However, the major constraint of developing countries has been the absence of community-based information systems to enable local people […]

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Research Project: Indigenous Knowledge Technologies

I recently received a note from Kasper Rodil, a PhD Fellow in Aalborg University’s Department of Architecture, Design and Media Technology, who shared with me a new website focused on Indigenous knowledge and technology (http://indiknowtech.org/). Below is an overview of the site and its current projects. indiknowtech.org Project Description From […]

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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 […]

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Pacific Intangible Cultural Heritage Mapping Toolkit

Introduction The Pacific Intangible Cultural Heritage Mapping Toolkit was developed by Sipiriano Nemani, Policy and Planning Analyst at the Department of National Heritage, Culture and Arts in Suva, Fiji, and commissioned by the Human Development Programme of the Secretariat of the Pacific Community. The toolkit is based on Mr Nemani’s […]

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Lokavidya goes virtual? Indigenous knowledge in the Gatesian Age

Abstract This paper attempts to address the issue of virtualizability of lokavidya. Lokavidya has been conceptualized as the vidya (value-laden knowledge) possessed by the farmers, artisans, women and tribal societies the world over and as being inseparable from their world-view and value system. Lokavidya has also been described as inherently […]

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The Ulwazi Programme

The Ulwazi Programme is an initiative of the eThekwini Municipal Library to preserve the indigenous knowledge of local communities in the greater Durban area. This innovation, developed and implemented by the Software Applications Section of the Libraries, is based on a bottom-up model through which online indigenous knowledge resources are […]

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ICTs, KM and Indigenous Knowledge: Implications to Livelihood of Communities in Ethiopia

Full Title: Information and Communication Technologies, Knowledge Management and Indigenous Knowledge: Implications to Livelihood of Communities in Ethiopia Introduction This brief paper discusses the role of information and communication technologies in gathering, storing and disseminating indigenous knowledge, the various community-based structures to be used in order to safeguard and transfer […]

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