Digital Ethics

Digital exhibits pose various ethical issues, including ownership, cultural sensitivity and consent when displaying Indigenous communities artifacts. Christen (2015) focuses on the intellectual property and rights of Indigenous artifacts and history, especially with individuals managing preservation and using their cultural traditions. In the article, she states “the colonial collecting project was a destructive mechanism, by which Native materials were unhinged from their local places and knowledge” indicates how historical aspects of Indigenous communities are use as “Native erasure”, meaning eradicating their own cultures, history and artifacts without their acknowledgment, spewing misinformation (Christen, 2015). This illustrates managing and appropriation of Indigenous histories and cultures, ignoring their rights and ownership to their artifacts. This statement establishes how crucial intellectual property is as it acknowledges the ownership and rights of Indigenous communities, histories and artifacts, providing consent in digital exhibits (Christen, 2015).