Some of the greatest revolutions begin with a whisper and on the International Day of Indigenous Peoples last week that whisper was Mukurtu.
Mukurtu 1.0, a free and open source platform that will create safe digital keeping places for Indigenous communities around the world was officially launched in Sydney at a Museums & Galleries NSW workshop at the State Library on 8 August.
The launch of Mukurtu 1.0 in Sydney was also significant as this adaptable content management system that responds to Indigenous protocols had its beginnings in Australia.
For Mukurtu Project Director Kim Christen from the Washington State University, the journey to Mukurtu 1.0 began in Tennant Creek, NT, in 1995. As an anthropology intern working with the Warumungu community, she thought there would be content management software (CMS) available to meet the community’s desire to organise, manage and share its digital cultural materials in line with their cultural protocols.
Instead, the few CMS systems available that attempted to respond to Indigenous protocols were limited in options, prohibitively expensive and required extensive training and proficiency. Since that time, government developed, Indigenous focused CMS programs have also stalled, particularly where communities have been reluctant to hand over precious information to state control.
Kim’s inspiration was mukurtu, the Warumungu world for dilly bag, used for collecting and gathering bush foods and in a particular Warumungu instance, holding their sacred objects and knowledge.
From her position at Washington State University, Kim was able to attract funding from the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) and the US based National Endowment for the Humanities towards her social justice vision of empowering Indigenous peoples everywhere through digital management of their own cultural resources and knowledge.
The funding has grown as the project has gained momentum and feedback in test communities in Australia, New Zealand, Africa, North and South America. It also attracted some of the best technical input and advice available, including Michael Ashley, from University of California Berkley as Development Director.
Kim and Michael made a three-day stopover in Sydney en route to New Zealand where the interest in Mukurtu is even greater than here. Museums & Galleries NSW organised the 3 one day introductory workshops with support from the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Data Archive (ATSIDA) at University of Technology (UTS) Sydney, the State Library through new Director Alex Byrne and Charles Sturt University Wagga Campus.
What makes Mukurtu special, apart from being free, powerful, secure and easy to use, is its adaptability to any form of Indigenous protocol in isolation or combination. It does this through an “And/Or” system of community and protocol relationship options.
As Kim and Michael say, the basis of the system is about people and relationships and the software just enables these to work together in an easy and instantaneous process.
The Drupal CMS platform Mukurtu uses is also open source and very secure, used by the White House and the World Bank.
Mukurtu will work with most scanned or stored digital material including text based archives and spreadsheets, photos and video, podcasts, multimedia and visual/graphic art. It can be geo located instantaneously, even sourcing longitude and latitude if you do not know these, just type in the name of your location.
Multi-component elements of the same object (text, video, photos) can be related and stored. Objects can be related to each other and collections built and shared as online exhibitions. Communities can be assured only the information and visuals they want to share will be seen by the relevant audience. For instance, other members of the same clan or community may see more or different material to what members of the general public may see, based on the associated protocols.
Mukurtu also allows users to apply creative commons or standard copyright licenses, which automatically generate deeds of useage for licensees of material. Kim and the team is also working on a Traditional Knowledge label system, which WIPO is particularly interested in. While not legally enforceable it will educate and provide understanding to web image end users on the appropriate use and accreditation of Indigenous materials from a Mukurtu CMS.
The Mukurtu publishable front page can be customised, as can much of the system so that, for instance, a local Aboriginal Land Council can use Mukurtu for its front page, displaying objects and images from its collection alongside the approved traditional knowledge.
Users can choose either a secure web-based version of the freeware or download a free version to their computer, laptop, tablet or mobile which will make that device in effect their digital keeping place. In either case their data is protected and can only be seen by those to whom they choose to make it available.
The Mukurtu 1.0 release means that all future upgrades (Mukurtu 1.1 being the first) can be pushed out as automatic and compatible upgrades, meaning no loss of data already entered.
An iphone application will follow in October and, with more funding, an Android version in 2013. As one of our workshop participants identified, this will be invaluable for Aboriginal field workers who can instantly record on tablets or iphones any site variations due to nature or vandalism. Where coverage is available, these can be immediately available in the localized version of Mukurtu for comparison.
The three workshops run by Museums & Galleries NSW at the State Library and the Wagga campus of Sturt University attracted a small, diverse and enthusiastic pool of potential users. These included Aboriginal achivists, academics, multimedia artists, photographers, filmmakers, researchers, historians and local Aboriginal Land Councils and community groups.
Having experienced the ease and power of Mukurtu for themselves, there was a 100% uptake of the online version which offers further training and advice support and video conferencing. In some cases, among those wanting to continue using Mukurtu were users who had only just learnt to use email.
If you would like to know more about Mukurtu, go to www.mukurtu.org and watch the three minute video and read its top ten features (there are many more).
Like all the other participants, I have become a fan of Mukurtu, believing we can create the digital future of our cultural heritage using it. Through spreading the word and further funding, I hope to be able to invite Kim and Michael back next year for a series of longer workshops for what will be by then a community of Mukurtu users and enthusiasts.
To see an interview with Kim Christen from the Washington State University click here.
Steve Miller
Aboriginal Programs Manager
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