Many Indigenous groups around the world are struggling to come to terms with the issues an online environment poses to the presentation of the Indigenous past and cultural present. This proposal aims to address the issue of a lack of culturally sustainable[1] interpretive content online through a community-based approach to the production of interpretive materials. Importantly, content produced by the project aims to include expressions of community perceptions of tangible and intangible aspects and values of a significant cultural landscape.
The case study, to be jointly undertaken by the Mannum Aboriginal Community Association Inc. (MACAI) and Dr Amy Roberts(Flinders University), focuses on the interpretation of the Ngaut Ngaut site. Ngaut Ngaut, known in the archaeological literature as Devon Downs, is one of Australian archaeology’s iconic sites. Located on the Murray River in South Australia this rockshelter was the first Australian site to be ‘scientifically’ excavated. Thus, this significant place provides an important backdrop from which to assess online cultural and intellectual property issues.
Read more about the project in this news story we posted when Amy Roberts first became an IPinCH Associate: http://www.sfu.ca/ipinch/node/658
[1]The term ‘culturally sustainable’ is used in this proposal to refer to practices and the production of materials that follow ‘recommended’ approaches in relation to the use of cultural knowledge that is both as accurate and representative of the community’s views as possible and which does not contain restricted or sensitive information. Such an approach provides a sustainable way for the community to share their cultural information in a manner that does now harm and which at the same time imparts useful and essential information to the public and other community members.
