They Are Talking To Us!: Digital Heritage in the Making in Indigenous Australia

International audienceIn the early 2000, as Internet was reaching the remote Aboriginal community of Galiwin’ku, in north-east Arnhem Land, a group of ceremonial leaders set out to establish an Indigenous Knowledge Centre. Conceived around a complex database that would reflect the principles of Yolngu knowledge organization, the centre sought to establish relations with various institutions holding north-east Arnhem Land collections in order to initiate the digital repatriation of these materials. This ambitious digital heritage program, which involved new forms of reflexivity, self-representation and collaborative practice, was followed throughout the region by a myriad of creative experiments with new media technologies. Drawing from a number of these recent productions, this paper will reflect on the ways in which these digital cultural practices challenge common perceptions of what heritage is and how these may enable new perspectives on the value of museum collections