The book Digital Indigenous Cultural Heritage deals with the digitization of the cultural heritage of indigenous peoples in an interdisciplinary manner. It presents practices and technologies that protect indigenous cultural heritage while respecting cultural rights and promoting intergenerational transmission of knowledge.

"This publication highlights the opportunities for increasing accessibility of the indigenous cultural heritage in the digital age", says the Editor-in-Chief, Post-Doctoral Researcher Inker-Anni Linkola-Aikio.

The digitization of cultural heritage has many opportunities but also challenges.

"Digitization contributes to the revitalization and preservation of indigenous cultures and promotes the autonomy of indigenous peoples and cross-cultural understanding. At the same time, however, digitization also involves many ethical and legislative challenges, such as ownership and management rights of materials and the role of indigenous peoples in the digitization process", emphasizes Professor Pigga Keskitalo.

"Through research, this book engages in a thorough discussion of the key legal issues and the need – or lack of need – for regulation in this area, highlighting in particular areas where the law is either contradictory or lacking in ethics", states Professor Rosa Ballardini.

"The need for ongoing research in indigenous cultural heritage is a pressing concern. Copyright law is grounded in the assumption that creative works are the products of human authorship. Yet this concept lacks applicability in the fast-developing landscape of digitization and use of human-created art and creativity to train visual outputs by artificial intelligence", says Professor Melanie Sarantou.

Experts dealing with the issues of cultural heritage and memory organizations of indigenous peoples, museum and archive professionals, legal experts, artists, game developers, as well as researchers, teachers and students can learn from the perspectives presented in the publication.

A book launch event on 28 November 2024 at 2:00 pm

The book launch event will be held with remote connections on November 28, 2024, from 2:00 pm to 3:30 pm (EET). The event will include speeches from the authors of the book. The event is in English and open to everyone who is interested.

The program of the event and link to remote participation

Information about the publication:

Inker-Anni Linkola-Aikio, Pigga Keskitalo, Rosa Ballardini & Melanie Sarantou (eds.): Digital Indigenous Cultural Heritage. Palgrave Macmillan Cham, 2025. ISBN 978-3-031-76940-5 (hardcover), ISBN 978-3-031-76941-2 (e-book)

The book will be available at the end of January 2025. The book's website: https://link.springer.com/book/9783031769405

The book is produced as part of the project "PromoTing Sustainable PRactices for Digitalizing IndigenoUS CulTural Heritage – Global North and South Juxtaposed (TRUST)" with strategic funding from the University of Lapland. Researchers from the Faculties of Education, Law, and Art and Design have been involved in the project. Professor Pigga Keskitalo has been the principal investigator of the educational research project section; Professor Rosa Ballardini has been the main principal investigator of the project, as well as the principal investigator of the legal research project section; and Professor Melanie Sarantou has been the principal investigator of the art and design project section.

More information:

Editor-in-Chief, Post-Doctoral Researcher Inker-Anni Linkola-Aikio, firstname.lastname (at) ulapland.fi