IDIA2009 Conference
Knowledge Discovery Empowering Australian Indigenous Communities
Dianna McClellan
Kerry Tanner
Caulfield School of IT, Monash University
Abstract
This paper explores how Australian Indigenous communities can be empowered through knowledge discovery from institutions with Indigenous cultural collections. Initially it examines the concepts of empowerment and disempowerment in relation to Australian Indigenous communities and their history, including recent key events and actions aimed at reversing this disadvantage. The primary focus of the paper involves research undertaken in Australian institutions with valuable collections of Australian indigenous material objects. These custodial collections, built since the mid-1850s, provide a key to repatriation and empowerment of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. Currently these institutions are re-evaluating their role in the modern world, and in relation to Indigenous Australians. As Indigenous communities are developing the confidence to inquire about their culture, these institutions have a pivotal role to play in restoring the memory of their Aboriginal heritage, often through institutional knowledge mining. Many technological and other challenges are encountered in this process, including the dependence on effective cataloguing and metadata. Constraints are ever present but there are many possibilities for empowering Australian Indigenous communities, in particular by governments and institutions working together in partnership with Indigenous communities. Keywords: Australian Indigenous cultural heritage collections, knowledge discovery, community empowerment, metadata, digital access
