Indigenous Knowledge Research and Safeguarding Heritage
- Programme goal:
Reproducing and re-packaging traditional heritage and cultural materials to be consumable as products and services in modern education, research, entertainment, information and tourism industries for less empowered communities who predominantly rely on them for expression and source of livelihood.
- Programme Actions:
- Inventorying and documenting cultural heritage under threat of disappearance.
- Facilitating communities to inventory and nominate cultural elements for UNESCO inscription.
Facilitating communities in implementation of heritage safeguarding measures.
- Facilitating communities to document and develop standard guides on cultural rituals and ceremonies.
- Formalizing and professionalizing provision of cultural services through training, organization and market development.
- Promoting research for protection and promotion of indigenous knowledge.
- Promoting Research on relationship between indigenous knowledge and heritage and sustainable development issues.
- Research and publication (papers & books) on cultural heritage and indigenous knowledge.
- Developing tools for adapting indigenous knowledge into sustainable development programmes.
- Training, research and publication on indigenous languages as vehicles and embodiment of cultural heritage and indigenous knowledge.
- Permanent Projects under this Programme Area
(i) Empaako Museum and Resource Centre.
This is a physical repository of cultural materials and assets like books, manuscripts, videos and artifacts for ongoing collections, references and consultation.
- ii) Network and database of cultural service providers.
Particulars of a network of trained and professionalized cultural services providers are permanently organized in a database which is published online and offline to facilitate accessibility, coordination and organization of the cultural services.
iii) Empaako platform www.empaako.org
This is an online community, database, repository and one stop centre for sharing cultural knowledge, information and materials among the bearers of Empaako heritage, both living at home, in the land of Empaako which cover parts of western Uganda, Northern Tanzania and Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo and living in diaspora. The platform has three major functions;
- It is an online repository of cultural materials in form of text and video on indigenous language, traditional food, dress, dance, music, crafts, community history, rituals, ceremonies on marriage, naming
And installing heir so that culture is put on the internet and it is easily accessible anytime and anywhere for its practice, sharing and transmission.
- To administer online teaching and training on indigenous language, traditional dressing, dancing, cooking, singing and how to perform traditional rituals and ceremonies of naming, marriage, and installing a heir.
- A platform for forming subgroups based on shared cultural aspects like common ancestry, native place, Empaako and clan for social interaction and even cooperation on development projects.