The need for decolonizing cultural institutions and their mismanagement practices in galleries, libraries, archives, and museums, of First Nations peoples’ materials and knowledge has been widely recognised. However, this has not translated into an information systems design, nor a complementary solution representing an alternative world view. Instead, the entrenched legacy of the neoliberal sector’s curatorial and archival practices remains intact, and their authority stays unquestioned. This edited book’s unique viewpoint is its exploration of projects that investigate innovative data curation strategies through the thematics of visual representation of infrastructure, and bodies of knowledge.
Authors from Indigenous and non-Indigenous backgrounds underpin their chapters with a social justice approach to investigations around different knowledge systems. They powerfully challenge entrenched assumptions of knowledge capture and dissemination of the western academy. An emphasis on visualisations of cultural heritage materials across a variety of case studies using technologies that range from augmented and virtual realities to mixed reality aims to raise questions for debate in the way Indigenous data is collected, managed, curated, governed, and represented and by whom.
The need for decolonizing mismanagement practices in galleries, libraries, archives, and museums, of First Nations peoples’ materials and knowledge has been widely recognised. Authors from Indigenous and non-Indigenous backgrounds powerfully challenge entrenched assumptions of knowledge capture and dissemination of the western academy.
POEM; Yali Leanne Windl
PREFACE; Kirsten Thorpe
INTRODUCTION: Co-design & Social Justice Opportunities in Information System
Design; Julie Nichols and Bharat Mehra
PART 1: INFRASTRUCTURE [ SECTIONAL SYNOPSIS]; Julie Nichols and Bharat Mehra
Chapter
1. The Ethics and Cultural Sensitivities of Data Management: Some
Considerations; Anna Leditschke, Julie Nichols, Karl Farrow, and Quenten
Agius
Chapter
2. Enhanced Material Management: Application of Natural Language
Processing and Rule Based Modelling for Simplifying Storage Requirements in a
Museum; Georg Grossmann, Alice Beale, Harkaran Singh, Ben Smith, and Julie
Nichols
Chapter
3. Reflections from the Field: Country in a Plastic Bag; Stephen Nova
Chapter
4. Galleries, Libraries, Archives, Museums [ GLAM]-focused Games and
Gamification; Erik Champion and Susannah Emery
PART 2: BODIES OF KNOWLEDGE [ SECTIONAL SYNOPSIS]; Julie Nichols and Bharat
Mehra
Chapter
5. Entwined Vernaculars: Heritages of Tolerances, Reconciliation and
Resistance; Julie Nichols and Quenten Agius
Chapter
6. Working to Improve the Fire Exhibit of the Australian Aboriginal
Cultures Gallery (AACG); Jared Thomas
Chapter
7. An Exploration of Digital Representation of Australian Aboriginal
Art in Museums for Immersive Engagement; Rui Zhang and Fanke Peng
Chapter
8. Clapsticks: Investigating Curatorial Opportunities; Eloise Labaz,
Julie Nichols, Rebecca Agius, and Quenten Agius
Chapter
9. Alternate Worldviews: Implications for Design, Architecture, and
Cultural Records; Subook Samridhi and Yali Leanne Windl
Chapter
10. More Than an Exhibition: Finding Voice, Tiati (truth) and New
Perspectives; Julia Garnaut, Lynette Crocker, Jeffrey Newchurch, and Merle
Simpson
PART 3: BODIES OF EXPERIENCE [ SECTIONAL SYNOPSIS]; Julie Nichols and Bharat
Mehra
Chapter
11. Yarning Journeys: Ngadjuri Perspectives on Cultural Heritage;
Julie Nichols, Jeffrey Newchurch, Robert Rigney, Bonita Sansbury, and Tinesha
Miller
Chapter
12. The Significance of Country: Ngadjuri Voices and Cultural
Heritage; Julie Nichols, Lynette Newchurch, Rebecca Agius, Ann Newchurch, and
David Weetra
Chapter
13. Agency and Authority in Intangible Cultural Heritage; Brye
Marshall and Julie Nichols
Chapter
14. Aboriginal Cultural Heritage in South Australia: Where to Next?;
Deanne Hanchant-Nichols
PART
4. REPRESENTATION [ SECTIONAL SYNOPSIS]; Julie Nichols and Bharat Mehra
Chapter
15. Inter-sites of Knowledge: Jules Janssens Nineteenth-century
Astronomical Apparatus and a Contemporary Moving Image System; Deirdre Feeney
Chapter
16. AR Storytelling for the Galleries, Libraries, Archives, Museum
[ GLAM] Sector: A case Study with the South Australian Museum Fire Exhibit and
Megafauna Displays; Ben Stubbs
Chapter
17. Can the Transdisciplinary Co-creation of Extended Reality
Experience (XR) Artworks Help Decolonise the GLAM Sector?; Mairi Gunn, Irene
Hancy, and Tanya Remana
Chapter
18. Beyond the Inanimate Line: Expanding Narratives of Drawings in
Contemporary Creative Practice and Architectural Education; Katica Pedisic
CONCLUSION; Julie Nichols and Bharat Mehra
Julie Nichols is a Senior Lecturer in the architecture program at the University of South Australia. Julie leads the Vernacular Knowledge Research Group [ VKRG].
Bharat Mehra is EBSCO Endowed Chair in Social Justice and Professor in the School of Library and Information Studies at the University of Alabama.
