Indigitization: Tools for Digitizing and Sustaining Indigenous Knowledge

 Data collection and analysis.
 Community consultations.

In collaboration with Indigenous researchers and knowledge holders, the project created a toolkit to help Indigenous communities with the conservation, digitization, and management of Indigenous knowledge. It does so by providing resources like the Indigitization toolkit and enabling community-led digitization projects through grant funding and training. Indigitization seeks to develop a network of practitioners who support community-led management of digital heritage.

The project is led by Indigenous researchers and organizations that center their demands and concerts about knowledge management. During all stages of the project, Indigenous communities are the sole owners of any data collected and produced within the framework of the project.

The Indigitization project promotes trainings and provides fundings for communities that want to digitize their knowledge archives that are in analog format. They believe that capacity building is an important step into promoting autonomy in their systems of preservation and use of their historical archives. By supporting digitization projects, the project presents itself as a steppingstone in safeguarding future generations’ access to valuable community information as well as ensuring the long-term preservation of these resources.

 Documents produced in community consultations and meetings.
 Community knowledge, in material (written, visual, and audio) or oral history.

The results of the research were arranged in a detailed toolkit for digitizing different types of archival material. The Indigitization Toolkit is available at their website and draws from the experiences of the three First Nations community partners involved.

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Indigenous Science and Technology Studies, Linguistics, Machine Learning, Digital Humanities, Information Studies, Education Studies, History