Indigenous Knowledge Sharing in Northern Australia: Engaging Digital Technology for Cultural Interpretation

ABSTRACT

This paper examines the opportunities for Indigenous communities to share cultural knowledge in tourism by increasing the use of digital knowledge-sharing with various technological platforms. The research was conducted with residents of Pine Creek in the Northern Territory (Australia). In-depth semi-structured interviews were held with representatives from both the Wagiman Aboriginal community and non-Aboriginal residents. The findings reveal that by combining both traditional and modern means of sharing knowledges, digital tourism products can empower local Indigenous communities involved in tourism and educate locals and tourists to conserve such knowledges for the long term. However, digital products of local culture can only be sustainable if all stakeholders involved in the tourism product development have an understanding of how to use the platform and have access to knowledge. This paper examines the skill-sets for technological application of knowledge among the Wagiman and non-Aboriginal residents of Pine Creek.

KEYWORDS:

• Indigenous tourism
• technology
• knowledge-sharing
• skill-sharing
• community empowerment

Acknowledgements

We would like to acknowledge and thank the Wagiman and non-Aboriginal residents of Pine Creek in the Northern Territory, Australia for allowing research to be conducting on and about their land and culture. We would also like to acknowledge that this research had been ethically approved by the Human Research Ethics Committee (HREC) since April 2015: H-2015-0038.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCID

Mark Harvey http://orcid.org/0000-0001-9901-9921

Tamara Young http://orcid.org/0000-0001-8132-4194

Additional information

Funding

We would also like to acknowledge that the research reported in this manuscript is part of a larger project funded by the Australian Research Council titled “Aboriginal place names and ethnobiology: enhancing interpretation of indigenous culture and heritage”. Project ID: LP120200393.