#thismymob: Empowering native title claims through Indigenous digital land rights

Before colonisation and the global impact of the Industrial Revolution, for thousands of years Indigenous Australians employed a variety of engineering and innovation approaches. This presentation will discuss a national project #thismymob, led by Indigenous researcher Associate Professor Christopher Lawrence, from the University of Technology Sydney. The project is a collaboration between researchers and local Indigenous communities from four mobs, Bard, Eora, Tiwi, and Gunditjmara. Employing a co-design methodology involving diverse stakeholders the project aims to design technology that allows Indigenous Australians to reconnect with their communities; discuss localised and national topics, such as native title claims, and laws that impact Indigenous communities; and, empower Indigenous people to take ownership of 'digital land rights' in order to use these tools to provide further evidence to support native title claims. Specifically, the #thismymob project will develop an app that reconnects Indigenous communities and is designed and built with for Indigenous Australians. The talk begins by describing the historical context around the cultural diversity of Indigenous Australia. It will then outline the co-design methods used to collaborate with stakeholders, including design workshops, meetings, interviews and symposiums. The talk will conclude with a summary of the findings and experiences of the #thismymob project.