Aborigines have local knowledge but databases are universal. How is local knowledge used in a database?
The notion of databases as somehow universal knowledge assumes two things. First it takes for granted the existence of ‘facts’ little pieces of knowledge referring to a single ‘out-there’ reality. And second it assumes that if you could only get enough of them together in one place facts would eventually link up into one complete system of knowledge. In many traditions of Indigenous knowledge (and in many sciences) both assumptions are seen as both wrong and ludicrous. Anyone who thinks about the notion of universality for very long will see that ‘facts’ are always generated and ‘made solid’ in specific places and times by particular groups of people. It is always done in specific ways. It is commonplace that it is actually very difficult to get things to link up. It is sometimes very difficult to actually link working databases, for example those that have been assembled in doing biodiversity. Data is just as diverse as biological organisms are. We found this when we started searching
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