How could elements of traditional culture be strengthened by encouraging Aboriginal people to use computers?
A problem arises if we think of traditional Aboriginal knowledge as ‘anti-modern’, the inverse of modern culture. Then we will begin to think of traditional cultures as stuck in the past, and want to put them in a museum and close the exhibit case. Understanding ‘traditional’ in that way we will think of it as somehow inconsistent, perhaps even incompatible, with computers. Traditional cultures are contemporary forms of life just as modern cultures are. They are rich in modes of innovation as well as having ways for preservation of cultural forms. We can understand traditional cultures as involving non-modern forms of identity. They have ontologies that make modern assumptions about knowledge and knowing look strange. And they work methods of doing collective memory that contrast with the usual modern forms of remembering. Digitised information arranged in ways that make sense and are useable by those working within non-modern cultures can surely be devised. As long as we don’t make as
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