Author: Ryan Bartlett

M4-WS5: NAISA

The Native American and Indigenous Studies Association was founded in 2008 as a professional organization dedicated to supporting those who work inside and outside the academic world in the scholarly field of Native American/American Indian/ First Nations/ Aboriginal and Indigenous studies. On this website you will find information about the association’s annual meetings, governing council, and announcements. The website also provides online membership signup, documents, and links to a forum that members and others can use to discuss issues regarding Native and Indigenous studies.

The above description was taken directly from their homepage.  The most useful resource this website has to offer ETEC521 students is the forum although the documents could be useful as well.  As this is a new website, they assure visitors that it will grow.

M4-WS4: E-Pustakalaya

E-Pustakalaya is a digital library produced by OLE (Open Learning Exchange) Nepal.  The bilingual (English and Nepali) library is categorized into the following seven areas: literature, are, course related materials, reference materials, other educational materials, teaching support materials, and newspaper and magazines.  Most of the downloadable material is in English and in .pdf format.  Although all the material in English is useful for students of ETEC521, that material in the teaching support section are more relevant to this class.  As subcategories, there are journals, articles on educational theory, professional development, etc.

There is also a highlights section offering further resources such as maps, videos, a Nepali dictionaly, etc.  At the bottom of the home page, they have included the logos of their contributing partners which are actually links to the corresponding organization’s website.

M4-WS3: Reconciliation Australia

“Reconciliation Australia is an independent, not-for-profit organization… building and promoting reconciliation between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians for the well being of the nation.”  This is taken from their description in “Who is RA” under “About RA.”  If you are interested in anything to do with Indigenous Australian issues, this site will surely not disappoint.

As there is simply too much information available on the website to mention here, some of the highlights are: reconciliation resources and action plans, their current projects, facts and figures, films and music, learning tools for schools, and what might be the most useful for research, their publications.  In their links section, they have divided them into nine different categories including media, documentaries, government, and stats & facts.

M4-WS2: NNI

“The Native Nations Institute for Leadership, Management, and Policy (NNI), housed at The University of Arizona’s Udall Center for Studies in Public Policy, serves as a self-determination, governance, and development resource for Indigenous nations in the United States, Canada, and elsewhere.”   This is the short description on their homepage of who they are.  Most of the content on the website is organized into the following three pages.

  • “What We Do” includes their programs such as policy analysis and research, executive education and curriculum development.
  • “Resources” included publications, curricular resources, their own TV/Radio program, research reports, etc.  These resources would be very useful for research of Indigenous issues.
  • “Who We Are” includes an overview of the organization, staff, international advisory council, collaborators, their logo, etc.

Finally, on their links page, they categorize many helpful links into three sections: academic departments and research centers, nonprofit organizations and other resources.

M4-WS1: IRCA

The Indigenous Research Center of the Americas (IRCA) is housed in the Department of Native American Studies at the University of California, Davis. Based on a hemispheric perspective, IRCA seeks to understand and express both the local and global dimensions of indigenous peoples in the American hemisphere. IRCA is an interdisciplinary, inter-institutional research program established with an interest in and commitment to the demographic, social, economic, political and cultural importance of indigenous peoples and the issues of self-determinatation, sovereignty and self-development. The Center has a particular interest in the global and transnational connections of indigenous peoples as well as their growing participation in the reshaping of local, regional and national identities and communities. IRCA provides an open forum for indigenous scholars, indigenous community, spiritual and political leaders and non-Indigenous researchers who are concerned with developing a hemispheric and interdisciplinary approach to the past, present and future realities of the indigenous peoples of the Americas.

The previous description was taken in its entirety from their homepage, as I would not be able to succinctly paraphrase it without leaving out meaningful details. The information presented on the site is indeed limited, but potentially very useful and will most likely grow.  There are currently six research publications available, which are posted in one of the following categories:

  • Culture and identity
  • Health and food
  • International agreements
  • Technology and communication
  • Territoriality

M3 – WS5: NepJOL

“Nepal Journals OnLine (NepJOL) is a service to provide access to Nepalese published research, and increase worldwide knowledge of indigenous scholarship.” There are 42 academic journals with 139 tables of contents listing 1960 articles of which 1319 are in full text. Unlike the journal selection offered by Digital Himilaya, these journals are all in English. There is also a journal content search option allowing searches by; all, authors, title, abstract, index terms, full text, date, supplementary files, etc.

Of course all the information accessible from NepJOL is specific to Nepal and might not be very useful for research of other areas or Indigenous groups.

M3 – WS4: Digital Himalaya

The Digital Himalaya website is a project by the University of Cambridge “to develop digital collection, storage and distribution strategies for multimedia anthropological information from the Himalayan region.”

The information offered on the site is essentially divided into two areas: Collections and About the Project. In the Collections is a wealth of information including the Census of Nepal, Films, Journals, Maps, Music, etc. There are links to over 30 different academic journals (of which most are written in English)!

The most useful resource under the About the Project are the links which are divided into three sections: Anthropology, Himalayan/Tibetan/Central Asian Areas Studies, and Digitisation of Cultural Resources. This last area is not regionally specific to the Himalaya and would be of considerable interest in the context of this course.

M3 – WS3: ULIN

The United League of Indigenous Nations (ULIN) is based on a treaty between 11 Indigenous Nations in the US, Canada, New Zealand and Australia to join forces and confront common issues such as climate change, trade and commerce among the Nations, protection of their cultural property as well as human rights of Indigenous Peoples.

Their website lists upcoming events such as ULIN annual convention as well as a review of pervious events such as ULIN leadership conferences, National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) and Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indians (ATNI) conferences.

In their working groups section, they list their five areas of focus: Cultural Property Protection, Trade, Climate Change, Border Crossing and Indigenous Nations Relations. There are relevant documents available in each of these areas such as “Understanding Maori Intellectual Property Rights.”

They also have a discussion forum as well as a news and updates section where they post press releases and such. Curiously, all of the external links in their links section are devoted to climate change resources. There are many here, but the breadth is limited.

M3 – WS2: ITEP

Institute for Tribal Environmental Professionals (ITEP) is a research and educational institution supported by Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, Arizona. It was established in 1992 “with a vision to assist Indian Tribes in the management of their environmental resources through effective training and education programs.”

Their website lists all 12 of their programs which range from the American Indian Air Quality Training Program to the Water Resource Program. The majority of these are training programs and the others are resource management programs. Each program is a link and within several programs, there are additional resources and links specific to that program.

Their resources section offers resources for ITEP programs as well as external resources. These resources range from links to external websites to newsletters and brochures.

M3 – WS1: NIARI

The Northwest Indian Applied Research Institute (NIARI) is an organization run by Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington. Their website is a great source of information about Native American education and tribal community issues.

NIARI accepts research proposals as well as archives research papers such as Tribal Identity: Fighting for Our Soul and Tribal Curriculum Development: A Tribal Decision-making Model. They also list many projects that they support. Of particular usefulness to the context of this course is Public School Curriculum on Tribal Issues, Cultural Revitalization and Cultural Property Rights.

In the resources section, there are five subsections of links: Web Information on Western Washington Tribes, Regional Native Organizations, State and National Government Resources, Other Resources and Resources at Evergreen (State College).

M2 – WS 5

Cultural Diversity

“The Cultural Diversity Program at the Canadian Council on Social Development (CCSD) is a research unit, which focuses on immigration, multiculturalism, and ethno-racial relations from a social and economic perspective.”

This web site is divided into the following pages:

-What’s new?

-Cultural Diversity Program FAQ

-Research Reports and Interesting Articles

-Network on partner violence against immigrant and visible minority women

-Links

Unfortunately it seems the site hasn’t been updated since 2006, but there are some good articles and links that could be useful for research.

M2 – WS 4

Asian Art

This web site is an on-line journal for the study and exhibition of the arts of Asia.  It is a fairly simple, no frills website, but offers a lot of good resources such as the following.

Associations – A list of associations, institutions and projects.  Many of these are interested in the preservation of certain art forms.

Exhibitions – Asian art exhibitions from museums, galleries and universities.

Articles – Articles written by scholars, experts, students and lovers of Asian art.

Galleries – Galleries and private dealers of Asian art and antiquities.

Letters – Asianart.com Letters Department, where visitors can post comments, reply to other letters, and access the latest letter from the editor.

Forum – The Asianart.com Forum, where visitors essays, long letters and reviews of travel or exhibitions are posted as separate pages.

Calendar of events – A calendar of upcoming events worldwide: Exhibitions, Auctions, Seminars and Conferences. Events can be posted here.

Links – This is where you will find an ever-expanding list of other interesting websites. There are other sites specializing in the arts of Asia, other sites on Asia in general and other interesting places in other categories.

Asianart.com Bookstore – Order Books directly from the vast lists at Amazon.com.

About Asianart.com – An article that tells you something about the journal, its editors and its philosophy. Updated very occasionally.

M2 – WS 3

Open Learning Exchange Nepal

Open Learning Exchange (OLE) Nepal is a Nepali non-governmental organization dedicated to assisting the Government of Nepal in meeting its Education for All goals by developing freely accessible, open-source Information and Communication Technology (ICT)-based educational teaching-learning materials.

This is directly taken from the “Who We Are” page on their website that also explains their mission and organization.  They also have a “How We Are Doing” page with a workflow chart to graphically describe the process they use to develop teaching materials.  Objectives and goals along with a prospective timeline are outlined on their “What We Are Doing”.  Finally and possibly most useful to my research is the page on “Why Open Learning” where they justify the use of ICT and open source educational materials.

They have recently launched a digital library and include a link on their homepage.  This is also a great resource as it contains: literature, art, course related materials, reference materials, other educational materials, teaching support materials, newspaper and magazines, maps, videos, etc.  Be sure to click on the British flag in the upper right corner if you can’t read Nepali.

M2 – WS 2

United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization

This is another massive web site with an incredible amount of information available.  Their main goal is “to build peace in the minds of men” and they are “working to create the conditions for genuine dialogue based upon respect for shared values and the dignity of each civilization and culture.” The site is divided into five main themes:

-Education

-Natural Sciences

-Social & Health Sciences

-Culture

-Communication and Information

Within each of these main themes, there are sub-themes.  For example, the Culture page lists:

-Cultural Diversity

-World Heritage

-Intangible Heritage

-Creativity

-Dialogue

-Normative Action

-etc.

In addition to these sub-themes, there are several featured articles and videos a section of services such as publications, statistics, databases, cultural journals, etc. and a list of communities which are links to other organizations divided into four categories including public and private sectors, UNESCO Goodwill Ambassadors for Culture, etc.

M2 – WS 1

The World Bank

Despite some ethical issues I have with this organization, their web site has a wealth of useful information.  After selecting a country (I am researching Nepal), you are presented with a variety of information such as:

-Country Overview

-News and Events

-Data & Statistics

-Publications & Reports

-Projects & Programs

-Public Information Center

-etc.

If that wasn’t enough, they list much more information by three main areas.  The first is Topic, which includes: Education, Social Protection, Decentralization, Governance, etc. In the Most Popular area, there is a video called Nepal’s Journey, Doing Business With Us, FAQs, etc.  Then there are Resources For: Businesses, Media, NGOs and Researchers, which include:

-Analysis

-Evaluation

-Information Centers

-Country Data

-Global Databases

-etc.

M1-WS 1: Cultural Survival

http://www.culturalsurvival.org/

This website is dedicated to the preservation of Indigenous cultures around the globe.  On their homepage, a powerful short video encourages help from those that visit the site.  Below that window, there is an area where news and updates are posted.  There are five tabs directing the browser to their ‘Homepage, “Programs”, “Publications”, “What you can do” and “Donate Now”.  By far the most useful resource the website has for research is the publication section.  There is even a search field at the top of all pages of the website.  Over 35 years of articles on indigenous issues worldwide can be accessed on the site.  When I searched for articles on Nepal, there were nearly 100 articles for me to choose from!  There is an advanced search option that will allow a much more specific search.  I was expecting that I would be prompted to sign up for a membership to be grated access to these articles, but then I realized that it is a .org site.  Donations are optional.

Categories
Uncategorized

M1-WS 2: Center for World Indigenous Studies

http://cwis.org/

The first three lines on the website read:

  • Access to indigenous peoples knowledge and ideas
  • Conflict resolution based on mutual consent
  • Protecting the rights of indigenous peoples

The site was established in 1994 and is the non-profit research and education organization’s online presence.  The organization offers education programs as well as internships and fellowships through their Fourth World Institute. Their web site offers access to multiple sources of information about indigenous issues such as online Fourth World Journal, the Fourth World Eye blog (eZine), a Forum for Global Exchange, the Chief George Manuel virtual library, a media center with video and audio media, photo galleries, etc.  The site has a much more modest collection of external links.  As this is an .org web site, donations are solicited.

M1-WS 3: Refworld

http://www.unhcr.org/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/refworld/rwmain

The extended title of this web site is “Refworld: The leader in Refugee Decision Support”.  Its primary focus is on refugee rights and consequently overlaps with indigenous issues.  The site is backed by the UN refugee agency UNHCR.

This site is a gold mine of information about anything you could imagine dealing with refugee/indigenous issues.  You can search by country, region, ethnic group, topic, publisher, document type, etc. and also has an advanced search option as well as search tips.  When I searched for Nepal, I found a short article titled, “State of the World’s Minorities and Indigenous Peoples 2009 – Nepal”.  It was very concise yet informative.  As if this isn’t enough information to last a year or two, the site also boasts an extensive collection of external links (2323 to be exact).  It’s possible to browse the links by type, topic, region and country.  If there are still too many results, it’s possible to search for a key word in the findings.

With so much information offered here, it does take time to sort out what is relevant to your research area; however, there are tools available to help in your search including a personalization feature that requires you to subscribe to the site.

M1-WS 4: Nepal Federation of Indigenous Nationalities

http://www.nefin.org.np/

Formed in 1991, NEFIN is a member of the United Nation’s Working group on Indigenous Populations.  Their mission “is to acquire social equality and justice for Indigenous Nationalities by preserving their distinct social, political, cultural and linguistic identities and by promoting their representation in very aspect of national life.”  Aesthetically speaking, this is a beautiful and well designed web site.  There is a slide show with fantastic photographs of various different Indigenous people from Nepal rotating on the homepage.  Half of the text on the site is in English and half is in Nepali, although all of the control text (buttons, menus, etc) is in English. The site has a lot of demographic and statistical information available about Nepalese people that could be used to argue a certain educational need or solution.  There are many articles and papers about development projects and initiatives currently happening around the country.

M1-WS 5: National Foundation for Development of Indigenous Nationalities

http://www.nfdin.gov.np/

This web site is the online presence for a Nepalese governmental organization. “The main objective of the NFDIN, is to ensure the overall welfare of the 59 enlisted indigenous nationalities who live across the country.”

The information available on the site is limited and of course specific to indigenous Nepalese nationalities.  There are several interesting articles about the current state of affairs in Nepal and some of the social injustices and human rights violations that are happening.  It is interesting to learn how the Nepalese government is doing and plans to do to help her indigenous populations.  Unfortunately some of the articles are in Nepali, and I have yet to learn that language.  It is possible to subscribe to their newsletter by sending them an email.  Hopefully (for me) it is in English.

Spam prevention powered by Akismet