Indigenous Heritage Management and Debates in Digital Heritage

This course will introduce students to debates in heritage studies and museology about the implications of the ‘digital’ for how communities tell their histories in and about place—drawing on innovative projects and practices from Indigenous heritage management and stories of country. Students will be introduced to key concepts and theories, and emerging methods, in digital heritage, considering how heritage and digital systems interact, and the challenges and innovations of this interaction for Australian heritage practices. We will hear from traditional owners, community activists, GLAM professionals, and Indigenous and non-Indigenous researchers about their work around Indigenous heritage—including, digital mapping and working with place, issues of ethical practice, open access/sharing/privacy, Indigenous data sovereignty and digital repatriation, digital curation and the impacts of this public interface on storytelling and storied places, and the implications of protocols and legislation around digital heritage. Ultimately, the course will encourage students to think reflexively and critically about their positions within these heritage systems and power structures; and, concurrently, to think ‘forward’ in imagining ‘future’ heritages for Australia in way that is cognizant of its Indigenous heritage and how we may collaboratively manage country in an intercultural and informed manner.