Exploring the applicability of the Semantic Web for discovering and navigating Australian Indigenous knowledge resources

ABSTRACT

Semantic Web ontology files can be flexibly programmed to delineate metadata relationships in machine-readable formats to create relational pathways for discovering resources both on and off the Internet. There is a global community of Semantic Web developers and users across a broad multi-disciplinary range of interests who create and share extensible open-source ontologies. In this article, the author will explore the functionality of Semantic Web techniques for representing the ontologies of relatedness through kinship that typically underpin Australian Indigenous knowledge systems, and investigate their potentials for meeting persistent demands among leading Australian Indigenous collections creators and users to be able to search and discover their hereditary knowledge resources in ways that reflect and reinforce their enduring cultural values, ways of knowing and rights-management concerns.

KEYWORDS:

• Semantic Web
• ontology metadata
• Indigenous knowledges
• Australia
• knowledge organisation

Acknowledgements

The research outcomes presented were generated through my work on three related ARC grant projects: DI0775822 with Joseph Neparrŋa Gumbula, FT0990730, and IN120100008 with Steven Wantarri ‘Wanta’ Jampijinpa Patrick and Stephen A Wild. Many thanks to the President of the ASA, Julia Mant, to the General Editor of Archives and Manuscripts, Katrina Dean, and to my Research Assistant, Anthea Skinner, for their valuable feedback on this article.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

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30. ibid., p. 64.

31. ibid., p. 65.

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38. Gumbula, Corn and Mant; Joseph Neparrŋa Gumbula, Makarr-garma: Aboriginal Collections from a Yolŋu Perspective, The University of Sydney, Sydney, 2009–10.

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42. Corn, ‘gurrkurr.owl’.

43. Corn and Gumbula, pp. 189–90; Corn, ‘Singing’, p. 168.

44. Corn, ‘gurrkurr.owl’.

45. Corn, ‘Baripuy_manikay.owl’.

46. Aaron Corn with Joseph Neparrŋa Gumbula, ‘Budutthun Ratja Wiyinymirri: Formal Flexibility in the Yolŋu Manikay Tradition and the Challenge of Recording a Complete Repertoire’, Australian Aboriginal Studies, 2007, no. 2, pp. 116–27.

47. Buku-Larrŋgay Mulka.

48. Michael Christie, ‘Words, Ontologies and Aboriginal Databases’, Media International Australia, Incorporating Culture and Policy, no. 116, August 2005, p. 61.

49. Corn with Patrick, ‘walaltja.owl’.

50. Christie, ‘Aboriginal’, p. 64.

51. Tracks, ‘Lajamanu Tracks Relationship’, 2017, available at <http://www.tracksdance.com.au/lajamanu-tracks-relationship>, accessed 21 December 2018.

52. Corn and Patrick, p. 7.

53. Corn, ‘gurrkurr.owl’.

54. Corn with Patrick, ‘walaltja.owl’.

55. Corn and Patrick.

56. ibid., pp. 8–12.

57. ibid., pp. 7–11.

58. ibid., pp. 7–12.

59. ibid., pp. 7–13.

60. Corn with Patrick, ‘walaltja.owl’.

61. Corn and Patrick, p. 6.

62. Christie, ‘Words’, p. 61.

63. Gumbula, The Yolŋu.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Australian Research Council [DI0775822, FT0990730, IN120100008].

Notes on contributors

Aaron Corn

Aaron Corn is Director of the National Centre for Aboriginal Language and Music Studies (NCALMS), Director of the Centre for Aboriginal Studies in Music (CASM), and a Professor in the Elder Conservatorium of Music at the University of Adelaide. He is a Director of the National Recording Project for Indigenous Performance in Australia (NRPIPA), and has sat on the ARC College of Experts.

with Steven Wantarri Jampijinpa Patrick

Steven Wantarri ‘Wanta’ Jampijinpa Pawu-Kurlpurlurnu Patrick is Creative Director of the Milpirri Festival at Lajamanu. He received an Innovative Curriculum Award from the Australian Curriculum Studies Association in 2007 for his work with the Lajamanu School, and worked at the Australian National University in Canberra with Aaron Corn and Stephen A Wild as a Discovery Indigenous Award Fellow on the ARC grant project, IN120100008.