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Northern Territory: library services to Indigenous peopleAnthony Beale Abstract The Northern Territory Library and Information Service is supporting the development of Indigenous knowledge centres as a means for supporting Indigenous cultural knowledge and to provide communities with locally based information services. The Galiwin'ku Indigenous Knowledge Centre is described in some detail. The Northern Territory Library and Information Service (NTLIS) is responsible for ensuring that the appropriate capacity and infrastructure is available for the delivery of library and information services to the Territory's Indigenous population. The 2001 ABS Census indicates that Indigenous people comprise twenty five per cent of the overall Territory population of 202 729 persons, with fifty nine per cent of Indigenous people residing in very remote areas as against eleven per cent of non-Indigenous people. In May 1979 the Northern Territory Government approved the rationale for the establishment of community libraries, with the first community library in an Indigenous community opening at Barunga in 1982. NTLIS currently provides funding and services for the operation of community libraries and knowledge centres to twenty Community Government Councils, fourteen of which are located in remote Indigenous communities. In addition NTLIS provides funding and services to five municipal councils (Darwin, Palmerston, Alice Springs, Katherine and Tennant Creek) for the provision of public library services, and delivers them directly to residents of the Litchfield Shire and Nhulunbuy. The balance of forty community government councils, the overwhelming majority of which are in Indigenous communities, are not provided with public library or information services. The concept of the community library as has been applied in the Northern Territory was derived from library services in other states and it is now clear that this model is not able adequately to provide for the information needs of remote Indigenous communities. Little demand exists in Indigenous communities for traditional public library services based on lending services and access to information in print format. In a Ministerial Statement to the Legislative Assembly of the Northern Territory on 7 March 2002, Mr John Ah Kit, Minister for Local Government, announced the development of Indigenous Knowledge Centres in the Northern Territory as a means of providing Indigenous communities with an information structure more appropriate to Indigenous needs.[1] Indigenous knowledge centres are seen as being better able to provide support for Indigenous cultural knowledge and to provide communities with access to the information necessary to build better communities. A key factor in the design of Indigenous knowledge centres is the use of multimedia technologies to strengthen Indigenous knowledge systems and to connect communities with each other and the rest of the world through the internet. The concept of libraries as Indigenous knowledge centres has been developed to provide Indigenous people living in remote communities with locally based information services that both collect and provide access to Indigenous knowledge alongside non-Indigenous knowledge. The key to this concept is the digitisation of Indigenous knowledge so that communities can use the visual, audio and security aspects of multimedia technology to create information that is both culturally valid and independent of the Western print media tradition.[2]
In the vision of Minister Ah Kit the application of the Indigenous knowledge centres concept will vary from community to community, depending on individual community profiles and choices. Indigenous knowledge centres will function as regional resources through which regional development objectives can be advanced, be closely linked to the development of information and communications technology in remote areas, and provide an avenue for economic development through the potential marketing of Indigenous knowledge to the rest of the world. Indigenous knowledge centres will have 'appropriate safeguards and protocols set in place to ensure the protection of local clan information, gender-based knowledge or information held by virtue of seniority'.[3] The major focus has been the development of a new service at Galiwin'ku, a community of approximately 1500 Yolngu people at Elcho Island off the coast of North East Arnhem Land. Yolngu people maintain a strong cultural presence throughout their traditional lands across Arnhem Land, and Galiwin'ku is closely connected to a number of other larger communities on the mainland. The Galiwin'ku Knowledge Centre, in North East Arnhem Land, opened on 12 June 2003 and delivers networked community access to a web- enabled knowledge database developed by Yolngu people to provide access controls specific to their cultural requirements. The Galiwin'ku Indigenous Knowledge Centre has been developed by the Galiwin'ku Community Council with support from NTLIS. The initiative for the project has come from the community, particularly through the Galiwin'ku Indigenous Knowledge Centre Steering Committee representing the Yolngu community and mala, or clan, leaders. The centre is located within the community in its own building and is run by a Yolngu management committee with a staff of two CDEP workers. The centre is based on an integrated web-enabled database developed specifically for the management of Yolngu knowledge under full Yolngu control, with the capacity for active participation by Yolngu people in the creation, capture and use of their own knowledge. Objectives of the centre are the structuring of the database so that it truly reflects 'Yolngu cosmology or understanding of the world'[4], the virtual repatriation of Yolngu information and sacred objects from institutions such as museums, universities and libraries to the appropriate clan owners through the centre database, use of the database as a repository for Yolngu knowledge for the purpose of cultural maintenance and transmission, development of potential economic benefits to Yolngu people through sales and commercial engagement with universities and other researchers, and access to information that is available globally through the internet. Networked database access has been provided to the council offices and to the Yalu Centre, a Galiwin'ku organisation responsible for community action on health and community development. Further development of the network will bring access to other key community cultural and educational facilities such as Shepherdson College, the school on the island. Extensive consultation by mala leaders with Yolngu communities on the mainland has created considerable support and interest in the centre, with the result that one community, Gapuwiyak, is proposing to develop its own knowledge centre with network or integrated access to the Galiwin'ku database.[5] A major challenge for the knowledge centre is the transformation of the information technology concepts into forms appropriate to the Yolngu cosmology. Yolngu society is divided into two moieties, Dhuwa and Yirritja, with individual clans being either Dhuwa or Yirritja. Knowledge is divided between Dhuwa and Yirritja, with responsibility for aspects of knowledge allocated to each clan. 'From a clan perspective, other clans will hold rights and responsibilities in regards to one's own clan's knowledge'.[6] The database is being designed to reflect this classification of the world so that it can be used appropriately by Yolngu people. Yolngu culture manifests three main levels of knowledge, garma (public knowledge), dhuni (restricted knowledge) and ngarra (highly restricted knowledge). Currently the knowledge centre is providing access only to garma material until such time as the mala leaders approve a system of security that appropriately restricts access to the other levels of knowledge. In addition, access to the database needs to reflect the distinction between men's knowledge and women's knowledge, and the distinction between Dhuwa and Yirritja and clan knowledge rights. Elsewhere in the Territory two other Indigenous knowledge centres have been established at Anmatjere and Wadeye. The Anmatjere Knowledge Centre and Library, a newly developed service, commenced operations on 15 April 2003 at Ti Tree, north of Alice Springs. The Wadeye Knowledge Centre, formerly a community library based in the local school, commenced operation in May 2003 following its redevelopment as a knowledge centre by community members, and has been established in conjunction with the newly completed Rural Transaction Centre within a new community mall complex. Knowledge centres operations are complemented by Technology Dreaming, an NTLIS-funded project that will provide ten Indigenous communities with interactive computer software for the management of non-culturally sensitive local history information. Technology Dreaming, and other software and infrastructure projects, will enable the existing community libraries and knowledge centres to develop solutions to their information needs in parallel with developments at Galiwin'ku. Notes
Anthony Beale, manager, policy and research, Northern Territory Library and Information Service, GPO Box 42, Darwin NT 0801. Email: anthony.beale@nt.gov.au.nospam (please remove '.nospam' from address).
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