(IN)TANGIBLE HERITAGE(S)

Abstract

This presentation raises questions of ownership, trespassing and authenticity in the digital heritisation of tangible and intangible cultural heritage of the First Nations People. In the 1900s Australian states enacted removal legislations that forcibly removed Aboriginal children from their parents and placed them in state- or church-run institutions/missions. While these missions are places of incarceration and reek with stories of loss, abuse and trauma, for many Survivors these are a homeland. Although now abandoned, they carry a mix of memories, emotions, and experience while embodying a disconnection from culture, identity, family and community. A project in partnership with Curtin University and Bringing Them Home WA was directed by the views of the Stolen Generations Survivors and their families. Aim was to create a Virtual Reality model as a digital record of at-risk heritage sites that can serve as digital repository for storytelling and personal narratives documenting, times, place and individuals who are fading from current collective memory. This presentation concentrates on the State Heritage listed Mogumber Mission (1951-1974) located in Western Australia. After charting the collaborative process of creating a Virtual Reality model, the presentation explores the following aspects that have universal applicability in the context of First Nations People and digital heritage: 1. That the traditional knowledge when shared widely is not misappropriated and that meanings of the cultural elements are not lost, ignored or transformed during the process of digitisation and sharing. 2. That the heritage and land ownership aspects are managed to resolve possible issues of digital trespassing.