Ara Irititja and Ara Winki in the APY Lands: connecting archives to communities through mobile apps on portable devices

ABSTRACT

Ara Irititja is an enduring and multifaceted project that returns and collectively documents Anangu historical material and preserves it for the future. This paper explains why the archival project has been so effective in engaging Indigenous communities and what it is doing to ensure its longevity. In particular, the paper provides details about a new pilot project which has resulted in a software application entitled Ara Winki No. 1, ‘a whole lot of stories’, specifically for use on portable electronic devices, which delivers historical and cultural content of relevance to Anangu in local languages and works to connect the existing archive to younger generations.

KEYWORDS:

• Indigenous archives
• digital technologies
• portable electronic devices
• community app development
• participatory methodology

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Acknowledgements

We sincerely thank Wilton Wilitjiri Foster OAM, senior Pitjantjatjara Elder and community leader, for his ongoing guidance and support of the Ara Irititja Aboriginal Corporation and Linda Rive, Digital Archive Officer, Interpreter, Translator, Ara Irititja Aboriginal Corporation, for recording and sharing some of the hidden magical moments this archive enables. We also wish to thank Dr Lyndon Ormond-Parker, Research Fellow, The University of Melbourne and Julia Mant, President, Australian Society of Archivists for their invitation and support for us to present at Information Technologies Indigenous Communities 2017. We also thank our co-presenter Douglas Mann, software developer of Keeping Culture KMS, especially for the time and effort to add to our manuscript. The development of the Ara Winki App by the Ara Irititja Aboriginal Corporation was made possible through a grant from the Australian Government’s Indigenous Languages and Arts funding. Ara Irititja is also supported by the South Australian Museum. Image costs for this article were covered by the School of Culture and Communication, The University of Melbourne. We are grateful for their support.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. For a description of the early development of this software see: Martin Hughes and John Dallwitz, ‘Ara Irititja: Towards Culturally Appropriate Best Practice in Remote Indigenous Australia’, in Laurel Evelyn Dyson, Stephen Grant and Max Hendriks (eds), Information Technology and Indigenous People, Information Science Publishers, Hershey, PA, 2007, pp. 146–58.

2. For further information on the change and destruction wrought by colonisation see: Sue Davenport, Peter Johnson and Yuwali Nixon, Cleared out: First Contact in the Western Desert, Aboriginal Studies Press, Canberra, 2005.

3. For example: Rene Kulitja and Linda Rive with John Dallwitz and Susan Lowish, ‘Singing the Archive: Presenting Ara Irititja’, UnMagazine, vol. 12, no. 1, 2018, available at <http://unprojects.org.au/magazine/issues/issue-12-1/singing-the-archive/>, accessed 1 May 2018.

4. Quoted from: ‘Ara Irititja Strategic and Operational Plan’, February 2016, p. 7, available at <http://www.irititja.com/resources/2016 February 3 Ara Irititja Strategic & Operational Plan-print.pdf>, accessed 15 May 2018.

5. Keeping Culture KMS is a registered trademark of Keeping Culture Pty Ltd.

6. The software has undergone many updates and changes over the years (see note 1). In 2015, Ara Irititja transferred to Keeping Culture KMS, the successor of the Ara Irititja browser-based software managed by the Ara Irititja project. Keeping Culture KMS is available as a ‘Software as a Service’ solution by Keeping Culture Pty Ltd. For more details about the functionality see the Keeping Culture website, <https://www.keepingculture.com/>, accessed 29 October 2018.

7. In October 2018, out of a total of 493 sources in the archive, only 16 were from institutions. Each institution may have several separate collections for State Library of South Australia, for example: State Library of SA (James Taylor), State Library of SA (JRB Love), State Library of SA (Mountford Sheard), State Library of SA (Noel Wallace) and State Library of South Australia. Nevertheless, a decision to focus on ‘collections at risk’ was made early on in the development of Ara Irititja.

8. See for example: Kimberly Christen, ‘Ara Irititja: Protecting the Past, Accessing the Future – Indigenous Memories in a Digital Age’, Museum Anthropology, vol. 29, no. 1, 2006, pp. 56–60; Hughes and Dallwitz; Sally Anga Scales, Julia Burke, John Dallwitz, Susan Lowish and Douglas Mann, ‘The Ara Irititja Project: Past, Present, Future’, in Lyndon Ormond-Parker, Aaron Corn, Kazuko Obata and Sandy O’Sullivan (eds), Information Technology and Indigenous Communities, AIATSIS Research Publications, Canberra, 2013, pp. 151–70; and Sabra Thorner and John Dallwitz, ‘Storytelling Photographs, Animating Anangu: How Ara Irititja – An Indigenous Digital Archive in Central Australia – Facilitates Cultural Reproduction’, in Juilee Decker (ed.), Technology and Digital Initiatives: Innovative Approaches for Museums, Rowman & Littlefield, London, 2015, pp. 53–60.

9. See for example: Sisters of St John of God Heritage Centre in Broome, available at <http://heritage.ssjg.org.au/assets/october-newsletter-2011.pdf>, accessed 27 October 2018; the Storylines project, State Library of Western Australia, available at <https://storylines.slwa.wa.gov.au/welcome>, accessed 27 October 2018; and ‘Our Story/Community Stories’ database for the Northern Territory Library, available at <http://atsilirn.aiatsis.gov.au/conferences/conf06/papers/Cate Richmond.pdf>, accessed 27 October 2018.

10. ‘Reconciliation Australia Annual Review 2016–2017’, p. 9, available at <https://www.reconciliation.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/ra-annual-review-2016_17_web-lr.pdf>, accessed 1 June 2018.

11. Bryan Smith, ‘Mobile Applications and Decolonization: Cautionary Notes about the Curriculum of Code’, Journal of Curriculum and Pedagogy, vol. 13, no. 2, 2016, pp. 144–63. doi:10.1080/15505170.2016.1196274

12. The ongoing web hosting, management and support of the software was transferred to Keeping Culture Pty Ltd. However, Douglas Mann, the developer of the software, remained unchanged. Together these two organisations maintain a strong working relationship, doing everything possible to ensure the sustainability of the digital archive.

13. Kirsten Thorpe, Monica Galassi and Rachel Franks, ‘Discovering Indigenous Australian Culture: Building Trusted Engagement in Online Environments’, Journal of Web Librarianship, vol. 10, no. 4, pp. 343–63. doi:10.1080/19322909.2016.1197809

14. Janet Inyika, John Dallwitz, Susan Lowish and Linda Rive, ‘Our Art, Our Way: Towards an Anangu Art History with Ara Irititja’, in Darren Jorgensen and Ian McLean (eds), The Archival Turn in Australian Aboriginal Art, UWA Publishing, Perth, 2017, pp. 151–70.

15. National Gallery of Australia, ‘Annual Report 2016–2017’, available at <https://nga.gov.au/aboutus/reports/nga_ar_16-17.pdf>, accessed 16 May 2018.

16. For example: Nura Nungalka Ward, Ninu Grandmothers’ Law: The Autobiography of Nura Nungalka Ward, translated by Linda Rive, Magabala Books, Broome, WA, 2018.

17. The founding members include – Pitjantjatjara Council Aboriginal Corporation, PY Media, NG Media, Pitjantjatjara, Yankunytjatjara Education Committee and Indigenous Remote Communications Association.

18. SBS News, ‘Mobile Access a First for One of Australia’s Most Remote Communities’, available at <https://www.sbs.com.au/news/mobile-access-a-first-for-one-of-australia-s-most-remote-communities>, accessed 2 June 2018.

19. NEOMAD, available at <http://yijalayala.bighart.org/neomad/>, accessed 27 October 2018.

20. ibid.

21. Deb Myers and Dave Palmer, ‘What the World Needs Now Is Love, Sweet Love (Punks)’, Cultural Studies Review, vol. 21, no. 1, 2015, pp. 249–61. <http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/csr.v21i1.4434>.

22. Indigital AR Film Yindi Artz, available at <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jPpQnufZDBk>, accessed 23 May 2018.

23. Quoted in ABC News, ‘Apple Rejection of Indigenous App Described as Symptom of “Digital Colonisation”’, available at <http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-11-17/apple-drops-indigenous-app-creator-warns-of-digital-colonisation/8032904>, accessed 21 May 2018.

24. NPY Women’s Council, ‘Uti Kulintjaku’, available at <https://www.npywc.org.au/ngangkari/uti-kulintjaku/>, accessed 12 May 2018.

25. Samantha Togni, ‘The Uti Kulintjaku Project: The Path to Clear Thinking. An Evaluation of an Innovative, Aboriginal-Led Approach to Developing Bi-Cultural Understanding of Mental Health and Wellbeing’, Australian Psychologist, vol. 52, no. 4, 2017, pp. 268–79.

26. Kulila on the App Store, available at <https://itunes.apple.com/au/app/kulila/id1098478930?mt=8>, accessed 27 October 2018.

27. For a more comprehensive overview see: ‘Appendix A: Web Resource Table’ in Fran Edmonds, Christel Rachinger, Gursharan Singh, Richard Chenhall, Michael Arnold, Poppy de Souza, Susan Lowish, ‘What’s ya Story’: the making of a digital storytelling mobile app with Aboriginal young people, Australian Communications Consumer Action Network, Sydney, 2014, pp. 52–60. See also: ‘iDecolonize: A Review of Indigenous Language-Learning Apps’, available at <https://rising.globalvoices.org/blog/2013/06/21/idecolonize-a-review-of-indigenous-language-learning-apps/>, accessed 22 May 2018.

28. Kate Shilton and Ramesh Srinivasan, ‘Participatory Appraisal and Arrangement for Multicultural Archival Collections’, Archivaria, vol. 63, Spring 2007, p. 87.

29. Isto Huvila, ‘Participatory Archive: Towards Decentralised Curation, Radical User Orientation, and Broader Contextualisation of Records Management’, Archival Science, vol. 8, no. 1, 2008, pp. 15–36.

30. Huvila quoted in Livia Iacovino, ‘Shaping and Reshaping Cultural Identity and Memory: Maximising Human Rights through a Participatory Archive’, Archives and Manuscripts, vol. 43, no. 1, 2015, p. 36.

31. Iacovino.

32. There have been several high-profile cases where Anangu have actively asserted control over their intellectual property. See: C. Antons, ‘Foster v Mountford: Cultural Confidentiality in a Changing Australia’, in A. T. Kenyon, M. Richardson and S. Ricketson (eds), Landmarks in Australian Intellectual Property Law, Cambridge University Press, Melbourne, 2009, pp. 110–25; and ‘Pitjantjatjara Council Inc and Peter Nganingu v John Lowe and Lyn. Bender Supreme Court of Victoria (Crockett J) 25–26 March 1982’, Aboriginal Law Bulletin, vol. 11, no. 4, 1982, quoted in Heather Moorcroft and Alex Byrne, ‘Intellectual Property and Indigenous Peoples’, Information, Australian Academic & Research Libraries, vol. 27, no. 2, 1996, pp. 87–94.

33. See for example Faye Ginsburg’s description of Ara Irititja in her chapter ‘Native Intelligence: A Short History of Debates on Indigenous Media and Ethnographic Film’, in Marcus Banks and Jay Ruby (eds), Made to Be Seen: Perspectives on the History of Visual Anthropology, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, p. 239, and Anne McGrath’s use of Ara Irititja as a proof of concept in her article: ‘Is History Good Medicine?’ Journal of Australian Studies, vol. 38, no. 4, 2014, pp. 396–414.

34. Tariq Zaman, Narayanan Kulathuramaiyer and Alvin W. Yeo, ‘eToro: Appropriating ICTs for the Management of Penans’ Indigenous Botanical Knowledge’, in Laurel Evelyn Dyson, Stephen Grant and Max Hendriks (eds), Indigenous People and Mobile Technologies, Routledge, New York, 2016, pp. 253–64.

35. ibid. p. 253.

36. Shilton and Srinivasan.

37. Linda Rive, personal correspondence, various dates.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Department of Communication and the Arts, Australian Government [Indigenous Languages and Arts funding].

Notes on contributors

Dora Dallwitz

Dora Dallwitz, started working on the Ara Irititja project in 2000 and has travelled extensively throughout the Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara Lands. In her 18 years at Ara Irititja, she has overseen the digitisation and archival management of thousands of fragile documents, artworks, historic films, photographs and sound recordings, and participated actively in discussions about how to shape archival practices to be culturally relevant. Dora has a background in visual arts and a Masters degree in sculpture. She sees Ara Irititja as a repository not only for at-risk archival materials, but also for Indigenous narratives of the past and present.

John Dallwitz

John Dallwitz, originally studied architecture and art teaching in Adelaide, South Australia, before concentrating on photography and heritage conservation. Since 1986 he has worked exclusively on Aboriginal community heritage projects. In 1994 he was engaged by the Pitjantjatjara Council to work with Ngaanyatjarra, Pitjantjatjara and Yankunytjatjara people to develop their acclaimed Ara Irititja project. He is now employed by the South Australian Museum as Manager of Ara Irititja and continues to work on the archival project, to ensure that it is maintained for future generations of Anangu.

Susan Lowish

Susan Lowish, is an art historian employed by The University of Melbourne. She is a passionate supporter of the Ara Irititja project, inspired by their grounded approach and its potential for recording Aboriginal art history for Indigenous communities.