Ara Irititja: Towards Culturally Appropriate IT Best Practice in Remote Indigenous Australia

Abstract

The creation of a digital archive database system for the Pitjantjatjara and Yankunytjatjara people in Central Australia has been a challenging information technology (IT) project requiring unique thinking about database design, implementation and deployment. What might seem like sound, standards-based IT practice in a typical urban or academic location becomes unworkable in the physical realities of remote Australia and in the context of indigenous Australian cultural sensitivities. Based on the experience of the Ara Irititja Project, this chapter outlines the central issues facing the development of archive databases for indigenous peoples in remote Australia and points towards the need for a new approach to IT best practices in this context.