As part of our Digital Conversations series, we invite you to join us for an evening discussing how Indigenous communities are using new technologies to preserve and promote their culture; this takes place on Tuesday 22 May, 18:30 - 20:30, in the British Library Knowledge Centre, to book a ticket go here.

Various topics and examples of how digital platforms are used by communities across the world will be covered. Including crowdfunding, crowdsourcing, apps, Etsy, videogames and social media.  Chaired by Niamh Moore our panel includes the following speakers:

 

• Robin Llwyd ab Owain, Wikimedia UK Wales Manager, will speak about the work done by the Wikipedia community supporting Celtic and Indigenous Languages, including the Celtic Knot Wikipedia language conferences 

 

• Gloria O’Neill, President and Chief Executive Officer of Cook Inlet Tribal Council and Upper One Games, the first indigenous-owned video game developer and publisher in the United States, is here in person to discuss BAFTA winning game Never Alone (Kisima Inŋitchuŋa), which shares Alaska Native culture and values with the world at large

 

• Felicity Wright who has over twenty years experience in working with non-profit Aboriginal-owned social enterprises. Currently she works for Injalak Arts in Gunbalanya, Australia, who sell their art and craft work to global audiences from their Etsy store. This will be a recorded presentation introduced by Jo Pilcher, University of Brighton, whose PhD research is about Aboriginal Australian textile production in the Northern Terrority

 

• Michael Wynne, Digital Applications Librarian, will give an overview of Mukurtu, a free, mobile, and open source content management system platform, which is built with indigenous communities

We are looking forward to a fascinating and lively discussion, so please prepare your questions for the panel! If you can't attend in person, please follow #BLdigital for the twitter stream during the event.

Game play scene from Never Alone featuring the owl man

This event is sponsored by the Eccles Centre for American Studies at the British Library. It will include a combination of in-person, Skype and pre-recorded presentations. This post is by Digital Curator Stella Wisdom, on twitter as @miss_wisdom.