Mukurtu: an Indigenous archive and publishing tool

FAIN: HD-50972-10

Washington State University (Pullman, WA 99164-0001)
Kimberly A. Christen (Project Director: October 2009 to June 2012)

Development of an online, open source archiving and publishing tool for use with cultural collections of Indigenous communities.

The Mukurtu project seeks to create prototype of an open source, standards-based, archiving and publishing tool adaptable to the local cultural protocols and complex intellectual property rights systems of Indigenous communities. As the third phase of an on-going project, this software differentiates itself by providing Indigenous communities with a customizable, turnkey solution to their archive and web-publishing needs. Indigenous communities have been underserved by Web 2.0 technologies focusing on archival sharing, social networking, and user-generated production. Similarly, Indigenous voices have been marginalized in the collection of metadata pertaining to their cultural heritage. Mukurtu addresses these twin erasures by bringing together Web 2.0 technologies, collecting institutions and Indigenous communities through a flexible archival platform. Mukurtu will facilitate knowledge sharing between Indigenous communities and collecting institutions.

Associated Products