Google Blog: A digital exhibit to elevate Indigenous art. “In March 2020, the 22nd Biennale of Sydney opened to wide acclaim—only to close after 10 days because of COVID-19. The Biennale has since physically reopened to limited audiences, but now, through a virtual exhibit on Google Arts & Culture, people all over the world can experience it. This year’s Biennale is led by First Nations artists, and showcases work from marginalized communities around the world, under the artistic direction of the Indigenous Australian artist, Brook Andrew. It’s titled NIRIN—meaning “edge”—a word of Brook’s mother’s Nation, the Wiradjuri people of western New South Wales.”
indigenous culture
‘There’s no way we can save it all’: National Archives says audio-visual records will be lost (Young Witness)
The Young Witness (Australia): ‘There’s no way we can save it all’: National Archives says audio-visual records will be lost. “The National Archives of Australia is preparing to lose large sections of its 117,000 hours of magnetic tape archives, including a prioritisation process to ensure archives relating to Indigenous languages and culture aren’t lost. Archivists across the world agree that audio visual archives held on magnetic tape will be lost forever if they are not digitised by 2025, a deadline that institutions like the National Archives and National Film and Sound Archive are battling to meet.”
EurekAlert: Concordian co-leads effort to see future of AI from an Indigenous perspective
EurekAlert: Concordian co-leads effort to see future of AI from an Indigenous perspective. “The 205-page [Indigenous Protocol and Artificial Intelligence Position Paper] is a collection of scholarly articles, essays, short stories, poems and tech prototypes, each offering a unique perspective on what AI means and offers to Indigenous peoples. Topics are as diverse as the workshops’ participants: one essay asks us to imagine ways to design AI that align with Indigenous values and ethics. Another questions data sovereignty and appropriation. Others ask how AI can be incorporated into and become a part of creation stories or how blockchain technology combined with AI can be used to manage Indigenous communities’ business affairs.”
Library and Archives Canada Blog: Archives as resources for revitalizing First Nations languages
Library and Archives Canada Blog: Archives as resources for revitalizing First Nations languages. “Since colonial contact, government policies have caused the displacement and separation of our people from their families, communities, lands and languages. Attempts at assimilation, such as the establishment of residential schools and the ongoing Millennium Scoop, have distanced multiple generations from their languages and cultures. Canada recognizes only English and French as official languages. First Nations communities have therefore taken leadership in ensuring that their languages are maintained, relearned and passed down. The decline in the natural inheritance of language through kinship has led to the rise of language-preservation and language-revitalization projects.”
Aldergrove Star: Royal BC Museum uploads 16,103 photographs depicting Indigenous communities to online database
Aldergrove Star: Royal BC Museum uploads 16,103 photographs depicting Indigenous communities to online database. “The Royal BC Museum has opened up to the public 16,103 historical photographs depicting Indigenous communities from across B.C. that were taken between the late 1800s and the 1970s.”
Farms .com: Highlighting First Nation agriculture
Farms .com: Highlighting First Nation agriculture. “A First Nation community wants to connect with local farmers, food producers and consumers to build an online database. The Anishinabek Nation is looking to compile enough industry information to create an Agricultural Asset Inventory, a directory and an online food map of existing agriculture and food-related businesses.”
National Indigenous Times: Remote school Nawarddeken Academy supports young student’s app development
National Indigenous Times: Remote school Nawarddeken Academy supports young student’s app development. “Carefully weaving culture and technology, 14-year-old Natasha Yibarbuk has created three interactive, bilingual apps teaching Nawarddeken culture. Yibarbuk is a senior student at the Nawarddeken Academy, a unique bicultural school in the remote community of Kabulwarnamyo. The community sits within the Warddeken Indigenous Protected Area in Western Arnhem Land, Northern Territory.”
Language Magazine: Nahuatl Folktales Translated into English
Language Magazine: Nahuatl Folktales Translated into English. “The Latino Book Review has released a free online archive of English translations of Nahuatl folktales. The stories were translated to English from the native Nahuatl folktales collected by Pablo González Casanova in Cuentos Indígenas, which was published by the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM). Cuentos Indígenas, which was originally published in 1946, features Nahuatl folktales translated into Spanish.”
UVA Today: UVA Art Museums Get Creative With Online Offerings Amid Covid-19 Restrictions
UVA Today: UVA Art Museums Get Creative With Online Offerings Amid Covid-19 Restrictions. “Instead of exhibition galleries filled with students and community members, live tours for classes and faculty and all sorts of workshops and events, staff at The Fralin Museum of Art at UVA and the Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection were suddenly looking at museums full of amazing art, with no one to enjoy it. And so they got busy, doing what artists and art lovers do best: getting creative…. Now, with a few clicks on the museums’ websites and social media accounts, you can access a wide variety of art, from a video tour weaving through 112 intricately carved memorial poles created by Aboriginal Australian artists to talks and tutorials with museum staff, student docents and guest artists.”
CBC: Métis dancers keep connected by putting a spin on a social media trend
CBC: Métis dancers keep connected by putting a spin on a social media trend. “A group of Métis jiggers from Manitoba are keeping connected by putting their own spin on a new social media trend. The trend, which is often found in videos on the app TikTok, involves users covering their phone camera with a makeup brush and then pulling it away, revealing their new outfit, makeup styles or in some cases traditional regalia and dance styles.”
KNAU: New Website Tells Grand Canyon’s Indigenous Stories
KNAU: New Website Tells Grand Canyon’s Indigenous Stories. ” A new website tells stories from five Native leaders about their cultural and spiritual ties to the Grand Canyon. The images, videos, and audio clips gathered on the site are part of a larger effort to improve education about the Grand Canyon’s indigenous history” An audio story with transcript available.
Alaska Native News: Museum Leads Effort to Preserve Alutiiq Family Photos
Alaska Native News: Museum Leads Effort to Preserve Alutiiq Family Photos. “To assist Alutiiq families with the preservation of their paper photographs the Alutiiq Museum is leading a Community Photo Archive project. In the coming months, museum staff members will work with tribal councils and community members to identify Alutiiq family photos, scan the images, and create digital copies to their owners. Staff members will invite families to deposit digital copies with the museum, but sharing is not a requirement for participation. This one-year effort is funded by the US Bureau of Indian Affairs with assistance from the Sun’aq Tribe of Kodiak.”
KVAL: UO museum works to digitize collection of fragile Native American baskets
KVAL: UO museum works to digitize collection of fragile Native American baskets. “Close up and through a camera – that’s what’s happening quietly behind the scenes at the University of Oregon Museum of Natural and Cultural History….Teams from the museum are digitizing the UO’s entire collection of historic Native American baskets, a project made possible through grants from the State Heritage Commission and other sources.” There’s a video news story that goes with this — about two and a half minutes — that’s worth watching.
Global Storybooks: From Arabic to Zulu, freely available digital tales in 50+ languages (The Conversation)
From The Conversation, with a big thanks to Garth W. who pointed it out: Global Storybooks: From Arabic to Zulu, freely available digital tales in 50+ languages. “This portal hosts custom sites with multilingual open-licensed books for over 40 countries and regions on five continents. Our vision is to help democratize global flows of information and resources, to facilitate language learning — including Indigenous languages — and to promote literacy.”
