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Traditional Knowledge & Knowledge Bases - OCULA Lightning Talk 2018
- 4. “Traditional knowledge (TK) is knowledge, know-how, skills and practices that are developed, sustained and passed on from generation to generation within a community, often forming part of its cultural or spiritual identity. WIPO, http://www.wipo.int/tk/en/tk/
- 5. THIS INCLUDES TRADITIONAL CULTURAL EXPRESSIONS ○ Art ○ Music ○ Dance ○ Names ○ Architectural Forms ○ Handicrafts and Narratives ○ ...and more! WIPO, http://www.wipo.int/tk/en/folklore/
- 6. 2. WHO HAS TK IN THEIR COLLECTIONS?
- 8. WHAT’S THE PROBLEM? “Because many of these objects were collected without the consent of the traditional owners, the custodial organisations are now facing the challenges of determining ownership, seeking direction from the traditional owners on the future of such objects and either repatriating them, storing them or exhibiting them appropriately as requested.” Hunter, J. (2005) The Role of Information Technologies in Indigenous Knowledge Management.
- 11. KNOWLEDGE BASES CAN DO IT ALL! (once you’ve consulted the rightful owners to determine what you’re doing)
- 12. VIRTUAL REPATRIATION Ex. Steps at the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI) include: 1. Organisation and provision of these resources to the native community—through the transferral of digital objects plus metadata to a local knowledge base. 2. Attachment of access rights and sensitive care constraints by community elders as well as annotations and metadata corrections by community elders and other community members. Hunter, J. (2005) The Role of Information Technologies in Indigenous Knowledge Management.
- 13. UNIVERSITY OF QUEENSLAND Indigenous Knowledge Management Software http://www.itee.uq.edu.au/eresearc h/projects/ikm/software
- 14. What could this look like as an elder? http://www.itee.uq.edu.au/eresearch/filething/images/get/projects/ikm/meg-capture.jpg
- 15. What could this look like as a user? http://www.itee.uq.edu.au/eresearch/filething/images/get/projects/ikm/meg-capture.jpg
- 18. “In Summary, one of the best features of a database is that communities can record and manage their own information, including traditional knowledge. https://www.environment.gov.au/indigenous/publications/pubs/knowledge-management-guide.pdf
- 19. TRUTH AND RECONCILIATION http://cfla-fcab.ca/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Truth-and-Reconciliation-Committee-Report-and- Recommendations.pdf 8. Implementation of Indigenous Knowledge Protection protocols and agreements with local and other Indigenous groups who have holdings in libraries, archives and/or cultural memory institutions to respect the Indigenous cultural concept of copyright with regard to Indigenous history or heritage … (we) recommend that CFLA-FCAB actively participate in reforming the Canadian Copyright Act to include protection of Indigenous knowledges and languages while advocating for changes to include traditional knowledge as outlined and recommended by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).
- 20. UN DECLARATION ON THE RIGHTS OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLES Article 31 1. Indigenous peoples have the right to maintain, control, protect and develop their cultural heritage, traditional knowledge and traditional cultural expressions… They also have the right to maintain, control, protect and develop their intellectual property over such cultural heritage, traditional knowledge, and traditional cultural expressions.
- 21. THANKS! Any questions? You can find me at: jordan.pedersen@mail.uotoronto.ca Or approach me after the session!
Editor's Notes
- I wish to acknowledge this land on which the University of Toronto operates. For thousands of years it has been the traditional land of the Huron-Wendat, the Seneca, and most recently, the Mississaugas of the Credit River. Today, this meeting place is still the home to many Indigenous people from across Turtle Island and we are grateful to have the opportunity to work on this land.
- Today I will introduce TK, explain what the problems are in connection with academic libraries, I will present a few alternatives to what can be done, and will finish by connecting these alternatives to the TRC and UNDRIPs which will explain why this work is so crucial.
- This quote is taken from the World Intellectual Property Organization, which Canada has been a member of since 1970. WIPO also has many a repository of resources on their site, including regional, national, local and community experiences on intellectual property and traditional knowledge, which includes best practice guidelines developed by other cultural institutions for handling TK.
- I only include the “almost”, because while it is possible to not have TK, it is highly unlikely, especially for North American institutions.
- Whether you say "collected without consent" or stolen, it is still indicative of the fact that our academic institutions are not the rightful owners. This quote is from Jane Hunter, who is associated with the University of Queensland, Australia, from which I will present an example later in the talk.
- What I’ll be talking about is a hand-drawn map, it is not a gps. There are other ways to traverse this territory. However, the reason that I am drawing heavily on Australian examples is because they have already done extensive work with repatriation, and they have a similar colonial history. I think we can learn a lot from their projects, and build off their successes and learn from their errors.
- To reiterate, these are the three common requests from Indigenous People with regards to their Traditional Knowledge.
- A knowledgebase is a database that can be human readable or machine readable for the purposes of sharing knowledge. They range from simple to very complex, and can include everything from manuals in a workplace, to data for machine learning. I’m talking about local knowledgebases ran by Indigenous Peoples. They can be structured to be non-heirarchical, in the language of the Indigenous Peoples of the TK, and are flexible. They can also be designed to mirror traditional ways of imparting knowledge.
- This process begins with translating many of the objects into digital forms- whether it be scanning or digitally recording. This "Spiral of Knowledge" Project was an attempt to provide Information Technology infrastructure to support their Culturally Sensitive Collections Care Program, which encompassed the institution, elders, and local community. For anyone in the audience who is into metadata or more of the tech component, the system was designed to use XML packages that worked between the institution and local knowledgebases.
- What could this look like?
- The reason it is important to have a knowledge base set up with different permissions is because elders are the traditionally the carriers of knowledge. As such, part of their role is to determine when or how a teaching should be passed on for the person seeking information. While digital imparting of information is different, the same principles apply, especially for information that is context dependent or deemed sensitive.
- As you can see there is a login which can be attached to viewing privleges, etc. As well as the option to search by type of resource (similar to many discovery interfaces used by academic libraries, etc.)
- An example of an Indigenous Knowledge Base in action. Over the last century, many collected and permanently removed artifacts, photographs, film footage and sound recordings. Many of these materials were filed away in the archives of public institutions, or in personal collections, yet are of great importance to Anangu (Ngaanyatjarra, Pitjantjatjara and Yankunytjatjara people). This project officially began in 1994 to repatriate ‘lost’ material for Anangu. By 2015, Ara Irititja has tracked down hundreds of thousands of historical and cultural items and makes them available to Anangu through the archive. The Anangu have managed complex cultural information systems for thousands of years, and restricting access to some knowledge on the basis of seniority and gender is an important part of those traditions, and that can be upheld with differential permissioning of the knowledge base. This is so successful because it has also resulted in policies that govern the relationships between collecting institutions and the intellectual property rights of the Anangu Peoples.
- TRC report from CFLA. While not legally binding, OLA is a a member of CFLA, and so many of us are members and should be responding to these recommendations.
- In 2010 Canada supported UNDRIPs, by 2016 it became a full supporter without qualification of the declaration. In short, part of our duty as librarians is to support this, even though this too is not legally binding.