The Ngaut Ngaut Interpretive Project: Providing Culturally Sustainable Online Interpretive Content to the Public
The Nguat Ngaut rock shelter was the first “scientifically” excavated site in Australia in 1929, but it has much deeper meanings for local Indigenous people.
In conjunction with the other River Murray and Mallee Aboriginal people, the Mannum Aboriginal Community Association Inc. (MACAI) shares stewardship responsibilities with the State of South Australia for this iconic place, known as Devon Downs in the archaeological literature. Existing online information concerning Ngaut Ngaut is viewed by MACAI as incomplete or inaccurate at best, and overtly wrong and offensive at worst. These concerns are addressed in this IPinCH case study developed by Isobelle Campbell (MACAI) and Amy Roberts (Flinders University). New internet resources are being developed in a collaborative, structured and culturally sustainable manner, reflecting both the tangible and intangible values of the site, through fieldwork, community consultation, and a visit by MACAI members to the South Australian Museum, which houses artifacts collected from the site. The South Australian Department of Environment and Natural Resources has offered to host an online booklet with the potential to address such intangible values as cultural meanings and interpretations of rock art, dreamings, oral histories, and more. New additional interpretive signage is planned, along with printed booklets to assist MACAI in promoting the significance of the park and to encourage greater protection of the cultural heritage of the area.
Secwepemc Territorial Authority: Honoring Ownership of Tangible/IntangibleCulture
Developed by IPinCH co-investigator Brian Noble (Dalhousie U.) and Arthur Manuel (Secwepemcul’w and Indigenous Network on Economies and Trade spokesperson) this initiative will bring together Secwepemc community leaders and knowledge holders from Neskonlith, Adams Lake, and Splats’in Bands of interior British Columbia with a group of social, legal, and political scholars. A four day discussion this spring (2012) will explore the premise that Secwepemc Peoples’ have economic, political, and legal authority within their territory, starting with the case of an ancestral burial site that will help people in the circle think and talk about how researchers and others might (a) most respectfully undertake political-legal relations with Secwepemc people concerning tangible-intangible culture and (b) develop fruitful scholarly and/or economic collaborations, while (c) fully honouring Secwepemc Peoples’ assertions of the territorial authority. To do this, the group will carefully consider and study the sources and kinds of locally, historically, socially bound obligations, duties and practices between host Indigenous peoples and visiting peoples within Secwepemc territory. Discussions will introduce the context of historic positions consistently put forward by the Interior peoples of British Columbia and consider the full meaning of Free Informed Prior Consent on Indigenous land, arising from the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and the Convention on Biological Diversity. It is anticipated the study will build understandings around good practices, providing guidelines to other future research projects on tangible and intangible culture and heritage that respect Indigenous self-determination and territorial authority.
The Journey Home: Guiding Intangible Knowledge Production in the Analysis of Ancestral Remains
This initiative builds on existing relationships between researchers and the Stó:lo First Nation of British Columbia, and focuses on intangible knowledge production in a respectful process for understanding the most appropriate way of learning about and bringing ancestral human remains home. The project was co-developed by Susan Rowley, Laboratory of Archaeology, University of British Columbia, and Dave Schaepe, Stó:lo Research and Resource Management Centre representative. Consultation between Stó:lo cultural /spiritual leaders and bioanthropologists is helping to address questions arising from or relating to repatriation, including: What types of anthropological research and scientific analyses can be applied to answer community-based questions? What are the details and cultural implications of analyses—both destructive and non-destructive? Who decides which questions to ask and which means of research to implement? Who interprets the results? Who owns those data? How do “scientific” and “cultural” ways of knowing relate? and Who is allowed to share in and benefit from this knowledge? The research plan addresses the types and parameters of research to be pursued and equitable sharing of resulting information. The anticipated Memorandum of Understanding or Agreement could later be adapted by others engaged in related work.
Yukon First Nation Heritage Values and Heritage Resource Management
Heritage values are key to fulfilling Yukon First Nations’ (YFN) rights and obligations established under their respective land claim and self-government agreements. Designed and directed by the Heritage staff of three partner nations, this case study explores YFN heritage values through collaborative, community-based ethnographic research. Initiating and conducting the research are Sheila Greer, Sheila Joe Quock, and Paula Banks (Champagne & Aishihik First Nations); Heather Jones and Susan Mooney (Carcross-Tagish First Nation); Mark Nelson (Ta’an Kwach’än Council); and IPinCH co-investigator Catherine Bell. While First Nations signatories to the Yukon Land Claim Agreements own and have responsibility for managing heritage resources on their Settlement Lands, the governments of the Yukon and Canada have responsibility for managing Heritage Resources on other lands in the Yukon Territory, wherever they are located. This study seeks to (a) identify YFN values; (b) determine how the values compare to those expressed in Western heritage resource management concepts and practices; and (c) consider how adoption of Yukon Indian values could potentially impact the management of the heritage resources by self-governing YFNs under their respective land claims. This project has already developed a guidebook to ethics and ethnographic research and held a Research Partner and Planning Workshop.
Grassroots Resource Preservation and Management in Kyrgyzstan: Ethnicity, Nationalism and Heritage on a Human Scale
How best can heritage preservation and education be promoted in the post-Soviet nation of Kyrgyzstan where ties to the past have been attenuated? This is the impetus for this study of the nature of Kyrgyz intellectual property and cultural heritage from a community-based perspective developed by former IPinCH Advisor Anne Pyburn (Indiana U.), Asipa Adumbaeva (Kyrgyz Heritage Association), Kubat Tabaldiev (National University of Kyrgyzstan), and representatives of the American University of Central Asia, Osh State Museum, along with extensive community member input. The goal is to develop, promote, document, and evaluate a set of small-scale heritage and cultural property preservation/education projects designed by ordinary citizens of the Kyrgyz Republic. The case study consists of five integrated, small-scale, community-embedded projects that includes teacher education workshops on cultural property and Kyrgyz archaeology; the collection and sharing of petroglyph images to aid in preserving oral traditions; development of an ethnographic map of sacred places; and a conference and educational outreach sessions on cultural tourism and cultural property. A variety of products will be developed for Kyrgyz communities, such as workbooks for students, lesson plans and resource materials for teachers, information packages for tourists, radio shows and podcasts, and a website for the general public.
Cultural Tourism in Nunavik
This initiative was developed by the Avataq Cultural Institute, Nunavik’s official archive and Arts Council, to help preserve Inuit language and culture in the context of increased cultural tourism in Nunavik (Northern Québec and Labrador) in Canada. Avataq archaeologist Daniel Gendron coordinates the case study in collaboration with Rhoda Kokiapik, Nancy Palliser, and Nancianne Grey.By identifying Inuit interests in tourism development and ways that Inuit might affect that development, Avataq’s study will help the Nunavimmiut define tourism issues with a potentially negative impact on their traditions and culture, and identify how best to address these. Currently, non-Inuit cultural tourism stakeholders take Inuit culture and its apparent strength for granted, often failing to implement mechanisms for ensuring preservation of Nunavimmiut (Inuit of Nunavik) culture and traditions. The Avataq team is also exploring the impetus for cultural tourism in Nunavik, focusing on the development of two major tourism projects in Kangirsujuaq and Kangiqsualujjuaq, and on how regional authorities and the Québec Government are ensuring involvement, cooperation, and collaboration of community members. Research is aided by interviews conducted in Nunavik by Tommy Weetaluktuk, a community member and Avataq archaeologist, and by Université Laval Geography PhD student Émilie Ruffin. Ultimately, a cultural tourism package proposal responsive to Nunavimmiut interests, and an Avataq policy on cultural tourism will be produced.
