The Mukurtu project began in the remote Central Australian town of Tennant Creek with the creation of the Mukurtu Wumpurrarni-kari Archive. The project was born from the needs of the Warumungu Aboriginal community who wanted a system to archive and organize their digital cultural materials in line with their cultural protocols. We collaborated to develop a user-friendly and culturally relevant system embedded with Warumungu social and cultural protocols.

The word “mukurtu” in Warumungu means “dilly bag.” Dilly bags hold sacred items and are accessible by acting responsibly within the community and gaining the permission of knowledgeable community leaders. Like the dilly bag the archive is a “safe keeping place,” a community repository for cultural materials and knowledge. The Warumungu community maintains the archive at the Nynikka Nyunyu Art and Culture Centre where people access their materials, deposit new content, add knowledge and information to existing content, and create new materials.