The Use of ICT to preserve Australian Indigenous Culture and Language - a Preliminary Proposal using the Activity Theory Framework

📝 Abstract

Propinquity between Australian Indigenous communities’ social structures and ICT purposed for cultural preservation is a modern area of research; historically hindered by the “digital divide” thus limiting plentiful literature and existing information systems in this field in theoretical and practical applications. Henceforth, community consultation is mandatory in deriving and delivering empirically effective processes in a cultural and language preservation IS tool designed to teach future generations of Indigenous Australians about native culture and language. More than 100 out of 250 languages spoken by Indigenous have become extinct since 1788 (Harrington, 2014) which inaugurates the urgency of this preservation tool. ICT has been identified as the best provision method; by its capacity to best collect, eternize and teach cultural knowledge and language. The aim of this research is to specify requirements and considerations for the development of a socially integrated, culturally conscious, end-user driven IS to preserve Indigenous culture in Australia.

💡 Analysis

Propinquity between Australian Indigenous communities’ social structures and ICT purposed for cultural preservation is a modern area of research; historically hindered by the “digital divide” thus limiting plentiful literature and existing information systems in this field in theoretical and practical applications. Henceforth, community consultation is mandatory in deriving and delivering empirically effective processes in a cultural and language preservation IS tool designed to teach future generations of Indigenous Australians about native culture and language. More than 100 out of 250 languages spoken by Indigenous have become extinct since 1788 (Harrington, 2014) which inaugurates the urgency of this preservation tool. ICT has been identified as the best provision method; by its capacity to best collect, eternize and teach cultural knowledge and language. The aim of this research is to specify requirements and considerations for the development of a socially integrated, culturally conscious, end-user driven IS to preserve Indigenous culture in Australia.

📄 Content

Australasian Conference on Information Systems

Van Der Meer et al. 2015, Adelaide

Indigenous Culture Preservation with ICT

The Use of ICT to preserve Australian Indigenous Culture and Language – a Preliminarily Proposal Using the Activity Theory Framework Sarah Van Der Meer Department of Computing Faculty of Science and Engineering Macquarie University Australia Email: sarah.vandermeer@mq.edu.au Stephen Smith Department of Computing Faculty of Science and Engineering Macquarie University Australia Email: stephen.smith@mq.edu.au Vincent Pang School of Information Systems, Technology and Management UNSW Business School University of New South Wales Australia Email: vincent.pang@unsw.edu.au Abstract Propinquity between Australian Indigenous communities’ social structures and ICT purposed for cultural preservation is a modern area of research; hindered by the ‘digital divide’ thus limiting plentiful literature in this field in theoretical or practical applications. Consequently, community consultations become mandatory for deriving empirical and effective processes and outcomes in successful culture and language preservation and teaching of Indigenous culture in Aboriginal Australian communities. Analysis of a literature review has identified ICT as the best provision method to immortalize and teach cultural knowledge and language for Indigenous Australians determined by the accessibility of ICT’s, the capacity of Aboriginal Australians to learn to use ICT and in some instances, the increased cost effectivity for multi-community communications and meetings from geographically dispersed land councils to use ICT. This research examines the effectiveness and outputs of culturally conscious, end-user driven ICT development and implementation into contemporary Indigenous Australian social structures and communities. Keywords Australian Indigenous Culture, Language, Activity Theory, ICT, Aboriginal

Australasian Conference on Information Systems

Van Der Meer et al. 2015, Adelaide

Indigenous Culture Preservation with ICT

1 Introduction More than 100 out of the 250 languages spoken by Indigenous people have become extinct since 1788, the arrival of Captain Cook to Australia (Harrington 2014). Consequently, the preservation of the remaining Aboriginal Australian cultures and languages with emphasis on the teaching of endangered Aboriginal Australian cultures and languages is a critically important issue for the Aboriginal Australian communities of Australia. Aboriginal Australian identities are unyieldingly interlinked with their connection and proficiency in cultural knowledge, community engagement and use of language and the land. Unfortunately, without connection to land, knowledge and language, Aboriginal Australians substitute fulfilment from these connections with addictive illicit substances which contributes to the decline of social capital and depreciation of contemporary Indigenous social structures (Amos 2015; Burke 2015; Everingham 2015; Jones 2015; Schubert 2015). This results in hindering capacity to self-actualize as an independent or connected society which is empirically harmful for the wellbeing and continuity of a culture (Anonymous 2015d). Preservation of Aboriginal Australian culture and language has occurred over multiple platforms inclusive but not limited to, tourist tours and attractions hosted by cultural communities, paintings, art galleries, performances of music, songs, dance and ceremony, national parks and protection of traditional sacred sites (Anonymous 2015; Lawrie 2012), recording of oral history and cultural heritage and attempts to circulate this to younger Aboriginal members of the community (Lawrie 2012). The Ara Iritija Project is one of the most renowned preservation projects and aims to return culturally significant materials to native persons, inclusive of; photographs, films, sound recordings and documents which it then stores on a purpose built computer (Gibson 2009). The Internet enables the preservation of historical heritages and has acted as a promoter for traditional cultures (Cui and Yokoi 2012). The existences of e-museums and namely the “Online Museum for History … as a collection of digitalized information resources, such as images, textual documents, 3D models, flash documents, videos, and audio files of relics collected in physical museums” (Cui and Yokoi, 2012, p. 2). Moreover, in some instances, number of visitors visit to e- museums has already out-numbered physical (on-site) visitors (Kravchyna and Hastings 2002). The ever-growing popularity and use of e-museums as sources of information suggests the movement of other cultural preservation projects existing more commonly through the use of IS. There are existing Aboriginal Australian online museums (Anonymous 2015c), however these have been unable to reach their full potential or have failed due to segregated structures of th

This content is AI-processed based on ArXiv data.