A joint project between VU's Sir Zelman Cowen Centre, technology company Iconyx, and the Wadawurrung (Wathaurang Aboriginal Corporation) has won the Annual Victorian Spatial Excellence Award for Community Contribution.
The project, a feature-rich Cultural Heritage mapping System, is making a major contribution to aboriginal communities by enabling them to own and preserve their cultural heritage and identity.
In its first rollout, the web-based system and integrated field mapping tools have been taken up by the Wadawurrung community. It has given them the capability to survey cultural mapping sites and record their significance in a way that goes well beyond the regulatory requirement of a government Cultural Heritage Management Plan archaeological report.
The Iconyx solution has enabled the Wadawurrung to record the complete picture of history in their region in a way that draws boundaries for landholders and developers but keeps sacred business completely private. Even traditions that have left no mark on the landscape can be recorded and respected.
It empowers aboriginal people to be the custodians of their own cultural heritage.
