Preserving Indigenous Heritage: The Power of Digital Knowledge Exchange

“In many Indigenous communities, the notion of a single creator of a song or author of a narrative is undone by value placed on community production, ancestral creation of stories, or other forms of cultural and artistic content. No one person can or would assert authorship or ownership of these materials.” (Torsen & Anderson 2010)

Digital platforms can serve as a valuable tool for knowledge, and Indigenous communities are taking these opportunities to share their heritage and histories with a global audience. Though “Indigenous truth rests on the empowerment of Indigenous land and sovereignty, not needing any legitimation from colonial states or modernity” the practice of archiving, preserving and disseminating selected Indigenous artefacts and histories has long fallen into the hands of colonial oppressors. 

As we advance further into the digital age, we are seeing multiple examples of Indigenous peoples accessing the virtual world.

This is so that their languages, stories and artefacts of cultural importance such as artworks and fabrics can be preserved and shared on a global scale. Through examining the digital practices of Indigenous communities and projects such as the Warumungu Aboriginal community in central Australia with Mukurtu, the Arctic Indigenous peoples with the Arctic Council, the Ulwazi Programme, the Guarani and Kaiowá communities in Brazil and the First Nations, Métis, Inuit, and all First Peoples of Canada, this article will endeavour to share important digital practices, workshops, knowledge and platforms that support the development of preserving, exchanging and amplifying Indigenous heritage while accessing the digital space.

This article will go on to explore the potential benefits for children in understanding their heritage and history through digital platforms, such as with immersive and interactive experiences offered by World of Us (WoU), along with the possibilities for reinforcing global knowledge and connection for future generations through digital knowledge exchange. 

Although the multiple opportunities for humane growth, development and shared consciousness are both inspiring and essential to study, we must also investigate the ethical considerations and challenges posed by utilising digital tools to preserve Indigenous knowledge. 

The importance of constantly referring to the concept of “nothing about us without us is for us” in relation to digitising Indigenous heritages enforces the necessity of involving Indigenous peoples at every stage of this process, and in every project.

The value of sharing cultural heritage

The most successful models of Indigenous heritage preservation and knowledge dissemination focus on challenging “conventional conceptions of heritage curation”. Understanding the value of sharing cultural heritage that is both material and immaterial falls to those offering access to these created digital spaces within existing communities. As evidenced by the collaboration between the Kuñangue Aty Guasu, which is the Great Assembly of Guarani and Kaiowá women in Brazil, and the Multimedia Anthropology Laboratory of University College London (MAL), the practice of “presenting heritage on their own terms” can be made entirely possible for Indigenous communities through extensive, careful research that considers “critical ethnographic” information as its foundation. This aforementioned collaboration will manifest in a series of outputs that includes a virtual reality museum and extended “digital heritage infrastructure”. The concept of utilising a VR museum also serves to “challenge the imperial foundations” of museums at large, and concurrently enhances community access to preserving, curating and displaying their cultural heritage themselves. Guarani and Kaiowá women will also be invited to undertake workshops focused on increasing access to digital tools and skills, in order that they have agency over their own “digital identities”.

The desire within Indigenous communities for such spaces to be developed enforces empowerment and increases the possibility of reclaiming space on the public record that was previously stolen, white-washed or lost. The Indigenous archive and publishing tool Mukurtu was first developed in 2007 with the Warumungu community in Central Australia and is now used by over 600 communities globally. Kimberly Christen initially considered the project as a digital space within which “the locally adaptable sharing protocols that facilitate different levels of access to cultural heritage, knowledge, and information” remain at the root. This mirrors traditional boundaries concerning ritual objects within Indigenous communities, as some objects are to be held in sacred space and only available for viewing by tribal elders or strictly for community members. Occasionally, there are objects that are entirely unable to be held, viewed or reproduced by non-Indigenous people at all, and Mukurtu serves to replicate and respect this concept within the platform. Christen explained that: “a large selection of images of tribal artefacts and documents on a website might be available to the public, while reproductions of culturally sensitive places, ancestors, or sacred objects can be accessed only by community members”, ensuring that strengthened relationships and trust between both Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities is prevalent through their collaboration.

Preserving cultural knowledge

When we consider digital preservation and knowledge exchange, it is perhaps more instinctive to initially focus on that which we consider primarily ‘culturally tangible’: artefacts, sacred objects, fabrics and artworks. It’s essential to evaluate the urgency of developing infrastructures to sustain the dissemination of less immediate and more malleable cultural knowledge; such as food heritage, Indigenous languages and natural effects on ecologies surrounding the communities. Sustainable development carried out in tandem with Indigenous communities can support a model that avoids losing information. In climates and locations within which changes are becoming ever more polarised, projects such as The Arctic Council's ‘Digitalisation of Linguistic and Cultural Heritage of the Indigenous Peoples of the Arctic’ are being developed. The initiative serves to “promote better understanding and facilitate adaptation to Arctic changes based on the knowledge and resources of affected communities and peoples”. The project endeavours not only to preserve important linguistic, culinary and cultural heritage, but also to offer a “unified portal” within which Arctic Indigenous peoples will be able to “learn from and adapt the experience of peoples living in similar conditions”. The digital space already offers well-developed tools for translating between languages, and language technology can also serve to preserve and expand languages that are at risk of being lost or forgotten. Today, there are only two or three remaining native speakers of the Arctic Indigenous Forest Yukaghirs’ language of Yukaghir. Through collaborating with this community, the Arctic Council’s project is able to digitise the language, including developed resources and opportunities to teach the Yukaghir language to increase the number of young native speakers.

How can we involve younger generations?

Future generations are the lifeblood of cultural heritage and history, in that they are those charged with keeping alive the intention, energy and connection set before them by their ancestors. Through a combination of virtual and in-person workshops and forums, young people can reconnect with their cultural identities in ways that transcend limits of both the real and digital worlds. Projects such as Murkurtu have expanded to include accessible technologies such as ‘Murkurtu Mobile’, which also encompasses social media outlets, YouTube, podcasts and workshops within schools for children aged 8-11. By demonstrating both the ease of access and distribution to children in this way, older generations are connected by proxy as they are able to enter into an organic ‘knowledge exchange’ process.

This circle of knowledge is continued with platforms such as the Plateau Peoples’ Web Portal: a “collaboration between the Spokane Tribe of Indians, the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation, the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, the Coeur d'Alene Tribe, the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs, the Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation, the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes of the Flathead Reservation, the Nimíipuu (Nez Perce) Tribe, and the Center for Digital Scholarship and Curation at Washington State University”. Using the Murkurtu CMS, the portal ensures that all records have been approved by tribal community members before digitising and sharing with a global audience. Universities such as Washington State and the University of Washington have reaffirmed their connection to the tribes with whom they share the surrounding area and land, guaranteeing that the material within the portal represents “the histories, languages, cultural belongings, and contemporary lives of the participating tribes”. This strengthened connection serves to enforce within local knowledge the physical and immaterial connections between existing and lost ecologies; thus demonstrating to younger generations the importance of everlasting preservation within both Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities alike.

Reflecting community relationships and histories

The Ulwazi programme in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa was established in 2008. The project focuses on collecting local history and knowledge while additionally offering training in digital media management and skills. The programme has also collaborated with students at four “under serviced peri-urban and rural schools” in the locality. “Indigenous knowledge is mostly stored in people’s minds and passed on through generations by word of mouth rather than in written form, [so] it is vulnerable to rapid change”; these changes and developments are in dire need of consistent recording and digitisation in order that Indigenous heritage and cultural identities are preserved. The Ulwazi programme identified this constant need and developed the Ulwazi Blog and Ulwazi Mobile. These two sub-programmes are more deeply centred on cementing the connection between community members and the younger generations. Ulwazi Mobile has been developed in such a way that it can be utilised on even the simplest of devices, needing only a WAP-enabled phone and browser to function. “Oral histories are used to collect stories” and so Ulwazi also arranges meetings between interesting and important community members and fieldworkers to undertake interviews that facilitate storytelling and communication to be shared online. The programme also utilises email, WordPress, and mobile-friendly technology to keep up with the so-called current ‘mobile revolution’ across Africa. Nearly 70% of the African population is now using mobile technology, in contrast to the 10% using the internet alone. As reported by Ulwazi, “millions of Africans are resorting to ‘the number in their pocket’ to connect with people and information; mobile phones are fast becoming ‘the African PC’”. This new age of autonomy over information access and dissemination is particularly important, given that “libraries in Africa were originally designed to serve colonial interests, stocking books of primarily foreign content”. Now, people throughout the continent are becoming able to explore, share and exchange knowledge relating to their own histories by simply connecting with the device in their pocket.

Identity and exchange for younger generations

“Cultural heritage affirms our identity”; it offers us a place from which to anchor ourselves as we grow and learn more about ourselves and the world. For young people growing up in Indigenous communities, the loss of this heritage can surmount to a loss of identity and a loss of the history that is both personally and globally valuable. Additionally, “the importance of intangible cultural heritage is not the cultural manifestation itself but rather the wealth of knowledge and skills that is transmitted through it from one generation to the next”. While this heritage is important in the development of communication, culture and connection, it is also constantly evolving as part of ‘living culture’. For young and future generations, nurturing this heritage is essential in order to safeguard important global histories, ecologies, skills, tools and stories without which our modern world would not have developed. The digital space offers the opportunity to archive, manage and demonstrate Indigenous heritage and artefacts without “freezing or trivialising” them. Through developing infrastructures such as digital libraries (as seen with Ulwazi), virtual museums (demonstrated by the Great Assembly of Guarani and Kaiowá women in Brazil), and interactive spaces such as the World of Us digital adventure platform (WoU.live) launching in 2024, we are now seeing the limits of the virtual world constantly expand for generations of the future.

Where does World of Us come in?

The World of Us game concept is growing in tandem with the research hub World of Us.info: so designed that digital knowledge exchange is possible between parents, guardians, educators and children in ways that are accessible for all. With a strong foundation based in mythologies, storytelling and existing Indigenous knowledge, collected straight from those living in communities in Brazil, Congo and Romania, World of Us enforces the notion of only creating content relating to Indigenous heritage, ancestral and ecological knowledge if those within the communities concerned have been and remain present at each stage of the process. By creating such immersive and interactive spaces, we are able to offer children insight into ideas of global citizenship while connecting them both to their own heritage and to the heritage of others. This portal of knowledge, when experienced in the metaverse, takes on a deeper meaning as children are able to connect with others around the world in real-time while they learn and participate in a digital knowledge exchange facilitated organically by the platform.

“How, by whom and for what purpose digital heritage content is created (and maintained)” must be the primary question posed when developing connections between Indigenous heritage and the digital space. Without this clarity, generations of the future will be dealt distorted content, inaccessible information and risk losing the heritage so needed to preserve. The ethical considerations and challenges present relating to the digitisation of Indigenous heritage are multifaceted. Many digital platforms now have strict and specific terms of service (TOS), such as with the Blackfoot Peoples’ Digital Library. 

Their online TOS and conditions of use policy states:

“You are not considered a member of any Blackfoot tribe nor are you considered a Shaman/Medicine person because you learned something on this site. This site is not for recreating Blackfoot ceremonies by non-Blackfoot people.”

Statements such as this are not designed to be exclusionary, but could rather be seen as invitations to “engage ethically” in the research, understanding and exchange of information. Given that there is a long-standing history of broken trust between Indigenous people and museums, archives and libraries partly due to the fact that these spaces often “possess objects and materials belonging to native cultures'', it is important that any digital heritage preservation initiatives offer structures of total transparency along with a kind of “digital repatriation” where possible. The ‘Round Trip’ software created by Mukurtu demonstrates a model for how to implement this authentically: users are able to connect with institutions and export content back into the software. Users are then able to add to the content, “adding audio, video and other commentary” in order that they can reclaim ownership of the content, heritage and stories while expanding local and global reach through the platform.

Ethical considerations and challenges

Indigenous “histories have long been excluded or misconstrued in institutionalised settings and have thus been taken to the grassroots, community level for autonomous documentation”. It is because of this that the ethical considerations for a non-Indigenous community member are paramount when collaborating on or facilitating the exchange and preservation of digital heritage. It is also to be understood that communities may struggle with implementing the infrastructure required for some digital platform concepts, simply due to faulty or slow information and communication technologies in community areas. This can impede possible projects and serve to further enhance the ‘digital divide’ present between Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities, thus reinforcing the problems already in existence.

The additional problem of pre-defined ‘communities’ determined by outsiders or project facilitators and collaborators also presents itself. These heterogeneous entities are, more often than not, exclusionary of Indigenous cultural concepts and identities as they speak to Westernised concepts of social boundary, ‘society’ models and land- or area-defined ideologies linked to culture and identity:

“A community perspective should therefore be considered as a dynamic process of redefining relationships in an ever-changing world, instead of monolithic cultural entities, or worse, as relics”.

A number of these aforementioned ‘ethical considerations and challenges’ were explored at the 2014 Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University forum in Istanbul. The forum, entitled ‘Preserving Culture and Heritage Through Generations’ expanded upon the roles of civil society in preserving heritage and culture, impacts on the environment and the question of preserving heritage in times of conflict. The forum, however, ultimately concluded that conflicts markedly disrupt and damage heritage on a “symbolic scale” but that each collection, institution, building and situation is “unique and that every institution has to prepare for disasters with its own unique plan”.

Possible infrastructure developments

There is also a need for a “new educational framework” and infrastructure when it comes to building and sharing digital platforms. Given the prevalence of Westernised educational models, many tools for archiving and exchanging Indigenous heritage need to be developed from within communities, in order that colonial concepts and constraints do not pollute the frameworks in place and, thus, the artefacts and information desired to uphold. “Cross-cultural consultation and communication” has been identified through research on the Ethnos Project as the ‘first step’ in identifying and creating systems for knowledge exchange. A non-hierarchical model of relationship building between community members and industry experts is a possible way to navigate this respectfully and authentically, ensuring that the materials are both identified and preserved initially by those with the primary connection to the heritage itself.

“Archives have always been home to humanists; they are places where voices are recovered from long quiet pages. Marginal notes inspire new historical insights, and government documents unearth untold national trajectories. Archives inspire. They can also silence by directing viewers to partial or incomplete records or records compiled from one perspective.”

Nb. The omission of any and all existing, non-extant, known and unknown Indigenous communities within this article relates solely to the lack of relevant information regarding their connection to digital practices and archiving at this time. Continued research to support the inclusion of aforementioned Indigenous groups will be carried out to further grow knowledge and understanding, both in digital space and real world.