An overview of IKRMNA research at December 2005
• Our research seeks to come
up with a series of general, robust, and flexible
solutions for using digitising technologies in a
variety Indigenous knowledge management scenarios
involving natural and cultural resource management
and inter-generational transmission of knowledge.
• We examine technical, social,
political, epistemological and ontological aspects
of the processes of generating and utilising the
solutions.
• Our research products so
far fall into two groups:
(1) Working with pre-existing
collections. We have developed digital display/storage
solutions for Indigenous users of digitising technologies
working in quite varied contexts.
(2) Products which are developed
as concepts. For
these we are in the process either of developing a
proof of concept, or developing an example of the product. These
three products are designed to allow indigenous people
to variously configure, display, manage, and generate
small collections of Indigenous digital objects which
they have developed for themselves for their own purposes.
Group
One Research Products:
• We have completed two databases/displays,
and are close to completion of a third.
• These products engage two
quite different display principles and technologies.
• Our Indigenous co-researchers
are just beginning to use these products. We
are following the 'lives' of these small databases
in Indigenous contexts, watching the forms of their
participation.
A. Small Collections:
DVD Database-displays
* Gulumerrgin DVD
An exhibit of a collection
of digital objects managed by a Larrakia family arranged
on a digital map of their land. Assembled
using DVD Studio
Pro . Some of the digital objects were
old family photos, others (sound files) were produced
for the project. The display was assembled at
the request of and with the co-operation of Lorraine
Williams and Donna Jackson (both from Darwin), working
to their specifications. These women belong to a small
group which is ultimately part of a much wider group
which has suffered nearly two hundred years of dispossession
and life at the cutting edge of black-white relations
in the NT. Their identity as it is produced in this
object is marked by both inclusion and exclusion. The
women have specified that the DVD is not open for the
public, and it needs to be approved by elders. The
display is a hard-wired application of DVD Studio
Pro that
can be burned on DVD disks.
The display uses photo maps
as a background, oscillating satellite and topographical
versions of a section of the land owned by this group. Place names are
inscribed on the map base. Clicking on a place
name generates a spoken version of the name. In
some places a slide show is also revealed which can
be played in automatic or manual modes.
Recognising the extremely delicate,
and highly labile socio-political context in which
this display must work there is currently only one
copy of this experimental display of a small collection
of Indigenous digital objects. At a distance
and with an appropriate demeanour, we will maintain
an interest in its life over the next few years.
http://www.cdu.edu.au/centres/ik/db_larrakia.html
* 'East of Arafura'
DVD exhibit.
An exhibit of a collection of digital movies commissioned by a Yolngu landowner. Assembled by Bryce using iDVD. This is an experimental display of a pre-existing collection of Indigenous video material. The videos were made at the behest of a senior man, Mangay, a land owner, in the area east of the Arafura swamp. The videos record the landowner in 12 different places telling stories in Yolngu matha about land, people and connections. The images often show him holding and gesturing towards photographs of old people from his fathers generation obtained from archival sources like the Donald Thomson collection. The recordings were made by his school teacher-friend, John Greatorex, a long time resident in a neighbouring community. John who now teaches Yolngu matha at CDU contributed to generating this digitised display.
The primary audience for the
videos is Yolngu men, women and children from Mangay's
own clan and other closely related clans, and people
from further afield who are ignorant of the history
and ownership of the area. This knowledgeable man was concerned about
the lack of detailed 'place knowledge' amongst his
kin and compatriots. The 'threat' of a huge
gas pipeline passing through the area compelled him
to take action. His kinsmen and co-landowners
would soon be involved in detailed and crucial negotiations
with the gas pipeline company. They needed their
understandings extended and their memories refreshed. Digitising
the videos and making a digitised DVD display enhances
his project, increasing his capacity to entertain and
educate his intended audience. He also intends
that his authoritative account of country can be used
as evidence in negotiations with the gas-pipeline company.
The display was assembled in
iDVD
and is burnt onto DVD disks for distribution. The
background is a satellite photo map of the Arafura
area, with the places that feature as subjects indicated
only with asterisks coloured yellow, set amongst the
green features of the land--the bright green of the
swamp being the dominant element in the map. There
is no written text in the display, and no English spoken.
However the videos have been both transcribed and
translated. In addition to the video material, now
playable on DVD players/TV sets, text files can also
be burnt onto the disk to be played on computers.
In the original version, the footage was played on
a video, and Mangay asked John to record an English
translation on audiotape. Mangay played the video
and the audio translation at the same time, to people
who were asking about some mining issue (and who
didn't speak a Yolngu language). Mangy has recently
asked for an English version of the DVD. We will
produce a version with English voice over in the
near future.
The 'life' of this open display will be closely monitored
over the next months and years.
http://www.cdu.edu.au/centres/ik/db_mangay.html
In subsequentdevelopments, an English simultaneous translation was added and an academic paper has been written detailing the life of the project. (links]
B: Larger Collections On-line
Displays
* Garma Cultural Studies Institute on-line
database
The data-base structure was
obtained from DSTC. Their
product was modified to allow full searchability of
data and metadata, effectively collapsing data and
metadata to one field. We have accordingly modifed
the upload to allow only one field. (see http://www.cdu.edu.au/centres/ik/pdf/WordsOntologiesAbDB.pdf for a discussion of this strategy.) Some specifications for a friendly text search can be found at http://www.cdu.edu.au/centres/ik/db_TAMI.html
As part of our commitment to
help the Garma Cultural Studies Institute we have
been collecting stories about Yolngu life, language
and culture from Yolngu teachers at the annual Garma
festival. These are usually
in the form of video files, or photos and text. Often
the videos have been translated, and some of them have
English subtitles. The GCSI database subproject
is an attempt to negotiate Yolngu friendly and useful
ways to manage these representations for use in GCSI
teaching contexts.
For example, Mandawuy, Witiyana and Raymattja from the GCSI are holding cultural awareness workshops for the hundreds of new mine workers in the expanded bauxite mining and processing operation on the nearby Gove peninsula. Raymattja has asked for help with digital resources for the sessions. We will be supporting Raymattja in selecting objects available in the GCSI on-line database (housed on a CDU server) and in arranging them for use. We see this solution as better than a simple powerpoint presentation because it means that the resources can be identified and configured in the contexts of classroom discussion. http://www.cdu.edu.au/centres/ik/db_garma.html
Group Two Generic Research products: These three products are designed for Indigenous people to variously configure, display, manage, and generate small collections of Indigenous digital objects.
* Generic Interactive Map
Application (GIMA)
A display/configuration solution for map-based exhibition
of collections of Indigenous Digital Objects. This
generic solution will utilize the socio-technical understandings
that we accumulated during the development work of
assembling the Gulumerrgin and East of
Arafura DVDs.
http://www.cdu.edu.au/centres/ik/db_flashmap.html
http://www.cdu.edu.au/centres/ik/db_kupalwanamyu.html
* Generic Ecological
Knowledge Organiser (GEKO)
This concept, inspired by Donna Jackson,
uses proprietary software in a cross-platform application.
It will be proved in making a botanical and zoological
memory and discussion tool, initially to support the
ethnobiology work of one of the project partners DIPE.
* TAMI and
the TAMI epoc and its possible further development
TAMI is a way of organising displays
of small collections of Indigenous digital objects.
The principle of organisation of the display, is prefigured
only by the content of the items stored as T ext, A
udio, M ovie, or I mage files. TAMI embeds multiple
flexibilities. First it is flexible with respect to
assembling collections of digital objects. It fits
with whatever gadgets and capacities are to hand. Secondly TAMI
is flexible in the processes of searching. It
allows visual scanning (ie without recourse to
metadata) and fuzzy text searches of collected
items to select for display. The visual scanning
mode is useful for people with high skill levels of
visual acuity. It is a preferred search mode
for many Indigenous users. Fuzzy text search
mechanisms attend to difficulties and instabilities
in spellings of many words in Aboriginal languages.
Thirdly, TAMI is flexible with respect to the processes
of generating displays. Its background can be map or
not-map based. Linking (and separating) of files of
images (moving and/or still), texts (written and/or
spoken) and sound (speech and/or music) can be achieved
seamlessly.
The diverse contexts of Indigenous
use of digitising technologies have varied social,
political, religious, aesthetic, ontic and epistemic
characteristics. The
multiple flexibilities of TAMI effectively allow the
richness and diversity of these contexts to be mirrored
in digital content. They also allow the diverse
content of the digital objects to determine principles
of organisation of displays generated with these digital
objects, enacting
to some extent its 'ontology'.
Displays devised using TAMI
can find recreational/re-creational uses in Aboriginal
families as stories around the campfire are often
replaced by stories around the television. Indigenous
people employed as teachers, rangers, health workers
etc. often use displays incorporating playful, transgressive,
artistic and innovative responses as part of the ongoing
processes of rebuilding physical and cultural worlds
according to ancient imperative. Displays to
evidence claims of a serious nature over knowledge
property, land property, aesthetic, or religious issues
etc. are also possible uses. http://www.cdu.edu.au/centres/ik/db_TAMI.html |
