Repatriation, digital technology, and culture in a northern Athapaskan community ...

Many Canadian First Nations and Aboriginal organizations are using digital media to revitalize their languages and assert control over the representation of their cultures. At the same time, museums and academic institutions are digitizing their ethnographic collections to make them accessible to or...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Hennessy, Kate
Format: Text
Language:English
Published: University of British Columbia 2010
Subjects:
Online Access:https://dx.doi.org/10.14288/1.0071074
https://doi.library.ubc.ca/10.14288/1.0071074
Description
Summary:Many Canadian First Nations and Aboriginal organizations are using digital media to revitalize their languages and assert control over the representation of their cultures. At the same time, museums and academic institutions are digitizing their ethnographic collections to make them accessible to originating communities. As the use of digital media becomes standard practice both in the production of ethnographic objects and the “virtual repatriation” of cultural heritage, new questions are being raised regarding copyright, intellectual property, ownership, and control of documentation in digital form. In this dissertation, based on collaborative ethnographic multimedia production work with the Doig River First Nation (Dane-ẕaa) in northeastern British Columbia, I follow the transformation of intangible cultural expression into digital cultural heritage, and its return in the form of a digital archive to Dane-ẕaa communities. I explore how new access to digitized ethnographic documentation has facilitated ...