Labels establish cultural authority over data and collections – access, use and sharing. These are applied by the Indigenous communities connected to the research. There are two types of metadata tags: Traditional Knowledge (TK) and Biocultural (BC).
Traditional Knowledge Labels allow communities to express conditions for sharing and engaging with research and relationships. They can also be used to express specific access conditions, such as knowledge that is sacred or only to shared amongst certain members of the community.
Biocultural labels are for scientific data: again, these define how communities want to share and credit data. The full list is here.
Whilst labels can only be used by the community that the traditional knowledge belongs to, notices are for use by institutions and researchers. They are used proactively to disclose indigenous interests in the research presented. More information on notices is here.
Earlier this year, a master's student contacted The Library about using Local Contexts information (in this case, Te Roroa's BC Provenance Label) in the metadata for their thesis. After consultation with the student, the team at Local Contexts, and the Systems and Integration Team, a Local Context Field was added to the self-deposit software and now shows up on the Open Access and Institutional repositories. The full thesis is here.
Another local project shared on their website is E Kore Au E Ngaro | The Connection Remains, a film by Whakatōhea Māori Trust Board & Local Contexts.
How do researchers get Local Context labels?
Local Contexts labels are not something researchers can just apply – they need to go through the Local Context website, who will curate what labels can be applied. There is a start guide here.
Where to from here?
Local Contexts metadata is currently only available for thesis deposits. We're still talking to Local Contexts about the best way to share this with the wider university, but feel free to share this with your networks.
For a thorough understanding and further guidance on Local Contexts, read more on their website.